The Electric: Renault May Use Iron-Based Batteries in About Half Its EVs

Following a pattern set by Tesla and Chinese carmakers, Renault plans to make a dramatic switch away from nickel-based batteries in future electric vehicles, instead using iron-based batteries in about half of them, a senior executive of the French automaker said.

Philippe Brunet, Renault’s senior vice president for powertrain and EV engineering, told me that beginning in 2026, the automaker will offer nickel- and iron-based batteries as options in all its EVs. The automaker’s Scenic SUV model equipped with a conventional nickel-manganese-cobalt battery, for instance, will go around 317 miles on a charge, he said; a cheaper version of the same model with a lithium-iron-phosphate battery will have a range of 254 miles.