Renault SA Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn said the future of electric cars depends on a rebound in oil prices that may boost sales of the battery-powered vehicles he's spending 4 billion euros ($5.9 billion) to develop.
"If it's less than $70, we're going to have a problem," Ghosn said in an interview at the Frankfurt Motor Show. "If oil's at $200 the economic equation's very easy, and if it's more than $200, even easier."
Renault pledged yesterday to sell 100,000 electric cars by 2016 in Israel and Denmark, the first two countries to hire the Paris-based company's U.S partner Better Place to roll out nationwide networks of battery-charging and swapping stations.
Ghosn is pitting electric cars from Renault and Japanese affiliate Nissan Motor Co. against a new generation of smaller, cheaper gasoline-electric hybrids from rivals including Toyota Motor Corp. The French company's Fluence sedan, on show for the first time in Frankfurt, will become the world's first mass- market electric car if the agreement with Better Place pays off.
"The outlook for investors in electric cars is extremely perilous, but if oil prices take off again there may be a significant commercial opportunity and big rewards," said Peter Schmidt, managing director of Warwick, England-based consulting firm Automotive Industry Data.
The price of oil, which stood at $70.88 a barrel as of 2 p.m. in New York yesterday, will rise to $75 next year, based on the median of 35 estimates ranging from $40 to $110. It's likely to fluctuate between $80 and $92 through 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
State Support
Renault is unveiling four all-electric prototypes at the Frankfurt show, where they're going head-to-head with hybrids including a new version of Toyota's Auris compact.
