Renault to axe up to 20% of engineers as competition from China heats up
www.straitstimes.com
The French automaker currently employs more than 11,000 engineers around the world. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/62563422

Renault has relied on Chinese parts and its research and development operations in Shanghai to develop the sub-20,000 euro (S$30,000) electric Twingo, which the company will start selling in 2026. Mr Provost has pledged to apply the lessons learned in China at its R&D hubs in France, notably at the the sprawling Technocentre complex near Paris.

  • jenesaisquoi@feddit.orgEnglish
    17·
    5 days ago

    Ah yes, the Chinese are beating us with superior technology, let’s cut some research & development

    • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      5 days ago

      Renault just released a line of inexpensive EVs that are selling very well. What they are doing is getting rid of ICE engineers who are redundant. Auto companies spent a fortune on emissions and exhausts controls.

      EVs are inherently simpler and cheaper to make, they are modular, they only cost more in US because Musk conned everyone into thinking they should cost more, but Tesla made higher profit margins than any automaker.

      • Melchior@feddit.orgEnglish
        3·
        5 days ago

        Renault is not selling cars in the US.

        Also EVs used to be expensive, because batteries were expensive. Prices have fallen a lot though.

  • B0rax@feddit.orgEnglish
    191·
    5 days ago

    I just love how the answer to competition is always „let’s fire some staff“ and not „let’s improve our product to beat the competition!“

    • Melchior@feddit.orgEnglish
      5·
      5 days ago

      Companies doing that almost certainly have either business degrees or lawyers as top managment and not people with for example engineering degrees. If you do not understand the technology, it becomes really hard to improve the product.

    • Vinylraupe@lemmy.zipEnglish
      51·
      5 days ago

      The goal isnt to beat the competition. The goal is that few very very rich people stay rich. If the Chinese do it cheaper the answer is simple.

  • LuxSpark@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    21·
    5 days ago

    So, cutting engineers huh? Not executives who suck up the money and provide a robust hot wind?

    • Hacksaw@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      5 days ago

      No engineer enjoys enshittification. Imagine making a commission. That’s engineering. Now you make something beautiful and the guy you’re working for says that’s nice now change the font to comic sans and use more reductive cringe tropes, and change all the art to stick figures, and they’ll sell the good art at a premium.

      Feels like shit but you need to get paid so you do what’s asked of you by the person that pays you.

      That’s what being an “enshittification engineer” feels like. It’s the same team that made the good product being asked to make it worse or you’re fired.