Renault Group and Minth Group, announced the signature of a memorandum of understanding for the creation of a joint venture to produce battery casings, based in France. The joint venture will locate this high-tech activity at the Ruitz plant in Renault ElectriCity and will supply ElectriCity Douai and Maubeuge plants. The battery casing, a set of extruded aluminium parts assembled by friction welding in which the battery modules are housed, is a strategic component of the high-tech electric vehicle and contributes to the vehicle's durability and safety.

The joint venture will install two new production lines in Ruitz in 2023 with a capacity of 300 000 battery casings per year by 2025, for electric models, including the future R5. Bringing together the complementary strengths of each Group, this joint venture will draw on the pioneering experience of Renault Group in the production of electric vehicles, the technical skills of Ruitz's teams and its knowledge of the ecosystem in France, as well as Minth Group's recognized know-how of battery casings. This joint venture will support the strong growth of the electric vehicle market and the development of Renault ElectriCity industrial cluster, which aims to reach an annual output of 480,000 electric vehicles by 2025 from factories in the north of France.

The finalization of this joint venture project is subject to the conditions normally applicable to this type of operation, including presentation to the employee representative bodies in accordance with the regulations in force and possible authorization by the competent competition authorities, and is expected to be completed by early 2023.