Ladies and gentlemen, and shareholders, we are delighted to welcome you to this very important annual event, our annual general meeting. It is always an opportunity for all of us to engage in a very fruitful and constructive dialogue. As you can see, I have by my side, Mr. Luca de Meo, the group's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Thierry Piéton, Chief Financial Officer, as well as Mrs. Quitterie de Pelleport, who is the Chief Legal Officer. We are also delighted to have the members of the board of directors, whom I greet here, and the members of the Renault leadership team, whom I would also like to greet. We also have our statutory auditors and the two shareholder representatives who will act as scrutineers. I would also like to draw your attention to the presence of a legal official representing the judiciary.
I would now like to provide you with some legal information concerning this assembly. Notice of this annual general meeting was published in the official gazette, as well as in another legal gazette on the 10th of April, 2024. Registered shareholders, FCP unit holders, and the statutory auditors were invited to attend, either by post or by email. Let me now turn to the composition of the bureau of the AGM. In my capacity as chairman of the board of directors, I will be chairing this meeting. The French state, represented by Mr. Pierre Fleuriot, and the company Amundi, represented by Mr. Frédéric Rosamond, will act as scrutineers. The position of the Secretary of the Assembly will be taken by Mrs. Quitterie de Pelleport.
Now, this bureau has been duly constituted, and all legal documents have been deposited on the desk in accordance with the legal provisions, and have been available to shareholders since the AGM was convened. The officers of the meeting have acknowledged that these documents are in order. The notice of the meeting, including the agenda and the texts of the resolutions, as well as all the documentation required for the meeting, were made available on the company's website. I have received confirmation that today, we have more than one quarter of the shares, comprising the share capital and entitled to vote, are present, and therefore we may validly deliberate on both the ordinary and extraordinary resolutions on the agenda.
The secretary of the meeting will provide you with the final figures of those present just before the resolutions are put to the vote. Our meeting, let me warn you, is being filmed and being broadcast on the Renault Group website. In a moment, I'll hand the floor over to Mr. Luca de Meo, who will talk about our group's performance and the way in which Renault is responding to the various revolutions ongoing in our industry. But before that, I'd like to share a few words with you. Ladies and gentlemen, I have now had the honor of being chairman of Renault's board of directors for five years, and this gives me the hindsight to measure the strength that a company can draw from the patience and loyalty of its shareholders, whom I would like to thank most sincerely today here.
I would also like to express my gratitude to the board of directors, whose work was particularly intense in 2023. Mr. Pierre Fleuriot, Lead Director, will have the opportunity to describe, during this AGM, in detail, the work of the board and its committees, which have been mobilized on a large number of strategic issues. But I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute once again this year to the relationship of trust and openness that exists between the management and the board. This is obviously an essential condition for a company's performance. What makes me happy for today, and confident about the future, is that your loyalty, shareholders, and your work, dear members of the board, are today being rewarded with results that are not just exceptional, but also historic.
They've been achieved in a context that is as uncertain as ever, and in an international environment that is as complex as it has ever been, but under the leadership of a remarkable CEO. Allow me to congratulate the group's employees, the architects of a performance that has exceeded all expectations. They deserve our recognition because they have been able to deploy the group strategy and action plan, and projects, with immense talent and determination. Finally, I don't think you'll be surprised if I congratulate and express my deep gratitude to the leader of this performance. Luca, we have now been working together for five years. When we first met in 2019, sorry, the company was going through a crisis of many dimensions: geopolitical crisis, an economic crisis, a social crisis, and a crisis of confidence as well.
This context did not scare you off. I would even say that it stimulated you, and you did join us. All I can say is I'm so grateful for that fact today. Today, the board of directors decided unanimously to renew your term of office as CEO for the next four years. This renewal is a mark of our recognition of the work you've accomplished, and of our determination to continue the transformation of the Renault Group. Everyone here knows how attached I am to the idea that a company that is responsible must serve all of its stakeholders, while respecting a very subtle balance and systematically adopting both a medium-term stance and a long-term perspective. So I think the best way to understand the performance achieved by Luca and his teams is to analyze it in terms of its stakeholders in 2023.
First of all, its employees, who have been taken on board this exciting adventure of inventing the sustainable mobility that will take us through tomorrow. They have especially benefited from a broader sharing of value through our ambitious employee share ownership scheme, but also from the impressive training dynamic set up within our own corporate university, and all of this in a very constructive climate. And all of this has been done thanks to the quality of the labor dialogue, industrial dialogue with our social partners, which we are keen to preserve, and this is not something that I'm commenting on casually. Our shareholders, whom you represent here, are also reaping the benefits of the 2023 performance through the payment of a dividend, which is on a par with that of last year.
I would also like to mention our valued dealers, whom we feel are a strategic asset for the company and for its brands, and we are delighted that they have benefited from the success of our value strategy. As for our customers, in 2023, they voted with their wallets in favor of our new products and services, and the best is yet to come. Our customers applauded the recognition of Renault Scenic E-Tech when it was voted Car of the Year, and through their trust, they've helped our brands to progress throughout the world. Finally, one last word about our suppliers. We are aware of our obligations towards them. We know the difficult times they've been through. In 2023, we endeavored to work with them as partners.
In the wake of the industry contract we have just approved, we will continue to build this relationship so that it is mutually beneficial because we do share a real common destiny with them. Based on this excellent performance in 2023, for which I would like to thank you, Luca, and on behalf of all of our stakeholders, I would like to thank you, because the Renault Group has never been better equipped to face the major challenges of our future. These challenges are many, and they are far-reaching, actually. They are geopolitical and economic.
How can we ensure a sustainable performance in the face of this energy supply in Europe, that we will have to make sure becomes affordable, and in the face of access to raw materials and rare earths that are controlled by countries keen to make the most of their strategic advantage? We also have regulatory and technological challenges. How can we successfully prepare for the European deadline of 2035, while at the same time trying to decarbonize the car industry? They are also ethical and human. How can we speed up the training of our employees in the future skills we need, especially given artificial intelligence, while leaving no one by the wayside?
If our group has never been so well-equipped to take on these challenges as it is today, it's because it has rediscovered its genes as an innovative company, in perfect harmony with our corporate purpose: to make the heart of innovation beat so that mobility can bring us all closer together. This corporate purpose is a compass, a matrix, which is being deployed and nurtured with talent by the teams at every level of the company. This innovation obviously concerns products and the services and the products that are invented by the company, but it also incarnates the way we work in an agile ecosystem. Lastly, innovation also inspires our new organization, which was set up by Luca, which is already now up and running. Now, behind this new organization, there is one dimension that is very close to my heart, and that concerns empowerment.
Working in close-knit teams that are focused on optimizing a value chain, electrical and software engineering, ICE engineering, the circular economy, all of this means harnessing the full power of agility and empowerment. And I'm so happy to see that this culture of empowerment is growing within the company, although we do still need to go further. By moving forward in this direction, our employees will be able to become even more involved and use their capacity for initiative, and managers will be able to support their teams to help them grow by creating the right conditions for trust, for confidence, which means, as you know, that anyone - that people can take risks.... This means that every employee must accept that empowerment means more autonomy and more freedom, but it also means more duties.
It also means the acceptance of assessment and evaluation, and the consequences of actions taken. Now, in this context, a very quick and profound transformation of our group, marked by our new organization and cooperation with several partners in different systems, we need these two additional dimensions more than ever. The horizon of our purpose, this unifying cement that is shared by everyone and that produces collective meaning, and empowerment that produces individual meaning for each employee. So it is this link between our corporate purpose and accountability that our corporate purpose committee will be focusing on this year, so that it can inform the thinking of our board of directors and the management.
The arrival of new members, who are eminent in their field of expertise, alongside those who took part in the first cycle, will enrich the scope of analysis of the work of this committee, which provides us with valuable insights into our world of mobility. I would now like to turn to our Alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors. In July 2023, we reached a key milestone by signing our new agreement, which took effect in November. This is a major development that actually we will ask you to vote on when we start voting the resolutions. Celebrating 25 years of existence, this Alliance is unique. It's the only one to have lasted so long in the automotive industry. When it was founded in 1999, it invented a totally unique model that was developed and that evolved over the next 20 years.
And then, as you know, we hit the geopolitical and political crisis of 2018, 2019, and the Alliance went through a very tough time. So we had to avoid the worst, and we had to rebuild, trying to reestablish this level of trust and confidence, which is a prerequisite for defining a new way of working. So with this new agreement, the nature of the Alliance has changed. It is now based on concrete projects. It is based on balanced cross-shareholdings, and on a relationship that today has been made simple, easy to understand, and transparent. It is positioned as a strategic lever to meet the challenges of the automotive sector and new forms of mobility. And above all, it is based today on a wide range of innovative projects.
Let me remind you that today, two-thirds of the vehicles of the three companies on the road worldwide are designed on common platforms, and this ratio is even higher in EVs. So the Espace, Austral, Rafale for Renault, Qashqai, Rogue, and X-Trail for Nissan, and the Outlander for Mitsubishi Motors were all born on the same platform. For EVs, Renault's Mégane and Scenic, Nissan's Ariya are also based on the same platform, which will be used for other key models in the very near future. The new organization of the Alliance also makes it possible for each partner to benefit from the initiatives and innovations of the other partners. Thus, Mitsubishi Motors has asked Renault and its teams to develop and produce its ASX and its Colt, which you've been seeing on our roads for several months now.
Ampere, one of our new entities, is now in the spotlight because Nissan has entrusted to it the development and the production of its MICRA, which is now going to be an electric car. Mitsubishi Motors has also asked the Ampere to produce its first C-segment electric SUV, and both our partners also decided, as you know, to become shareholders in Ampere for significant amounts, therefore demonstrating their confidence and their commitment. For Horse, the Horse entity, for its part, has sold more than 500,000 mechanical components, or rather powertrain components, to its Alliance partners in 2023. At the end of March, we were in India with Luca and Nissan's senior management, with a view to the future launch of three vehicles that we have been developed and produced jointly, both for the Indian market and for export from India.
The enthusiasm of the Indian, French, and Japanese teams was such a pleasure to behold. So, ladies and gentlemen, our dear shareholders, Renault Group's unprecedented turnaround is a story of women and men who rallied around and proved that this fantastic company, born 120 years ago, and really, an integral part of France, has extraordinary resources. The results achieved in 2023 will enable us to invest in the future while sharing value with our stakeholders. This is something that is a source of great satisfaction to us. And in the difficult and uncertain times that we are living in today, this is the best encouragement to continue and to accelerate, because we are a manufacturer focused on sustainable performance, but also fully responsible, and we are committed.
Before I hand the floor to Luca, let's share a few images of a great group initiative, which illustrates the idea that this company is even greater when it can reconcile performance and commitment by contributing to the common good.
[Foreign language]
[Foreign language]
So for people with an invulnerable position, many had to turn down a job for mobility reasons. But sometimes a job can come with a car. This time, it's a car that comes with a job. And now, Dacia and Renault are presenting the cars of the future to go to work. [Foreign language]
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Good afternoon, dear shareholders. Now, in the life of companies, and of course, in the life of those who work for them, there are certain years that are as densely packed as a decade. And since Jean-Dominique says, five years together, but actually it's been less than four years. So maybe I'm, I'm making the time drag for you. I don't know. Or maybe it's just that we've been doing so much that we thought it had taken longer. So this, so, you know... And as Jean-Dominique says, this is what happens when you're close to a catastrophe, and then you manage to jump back, like in the last three and a half, or four years that we spent together. Because our industry is reinventing itself at breakneck speed in a country, in a world, sorry, where everything is changing before our very eyes.
I've always thought that it was during these times that we would be able to make a difference, and that is why I came back. That's why I believe in what we've done. And so it's with the men and women of Renault that we've managed to make a difference. And today, as we look together at what has happened during these years of incredible transformation and challenge, I really think of Renault employees, first and foremost. And in fact, I'd like to propose that we give them a very warm hand for everything that they've achieved over the last four years.
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much for them. So we all know that, of course, the automotive industry is, first and foremost, a team sport. So I'd like to thank our partners, our suppliers, our dealers, and our customers, obviously, just like Jean-Dominique did. Because really, at the end of the day, everything really depends on our customers who buy our cars. And of course, thank you, dear shareholders, for your confidence, even when we have had to go through such difficult times together. Finally, I would also like to express my profound gratitude to all the members of the board of directors, and especially to Jean-Dominique. And, as you have just said, Jean-Dominique, the quality of the relationship that we've had, you and I, has really been a decisive driving force over the past four years.
Now, before going back over these last 1,000 days in detail, let me take you through them again in pictures.
We knew we needed a new storyline with a new direction, with a new direction, with a new direction. First phase is Resurrection, running from 2020 to 2023. It will be clearly about cost reduction, margin, and cash generation. It will be moving our focus from volume to value. To the upgrade and automation of our plants in the last decade, will allow us to have a lean and high-performance operational system on the industrial side. So this modernized, lean organization will allow us to reduce, by a whole year, our car development time from concept freeze to start of production. Second phase, called Renovation, spanning from 2023 to 2025. This is when we will benefit from a completely new and revamped lineup, electric and electrified, centered on larger profit pools, and allowing us to finally leverage a portfolio of strong and differentiated brands.
Dacia will stay Dacia. The Renault brands will embody modernity. Alpine, to become our tool to play automotive avant-garde. ... Mobilize goes beyond into the field of data, mobility, and energy services. Then third phase is revolution. From 2025 onwards, traditional OEMs will have to jump on the value chain of new mobility. We will be able to develop profitable EVs at the price of combustion engine-powered models. By enlarging and converting one of our plants into the biggest EV factory in Europe, we'll also offer market-ready, end-to-end hydrogen solutions for LCVs. We are engaging in the future, playing the leader's game when it comes to energy transition. We have a clear advantage when it comes to second life and end of life of batteries.
But we will do it in the Renault way, meaning in the full respect of the expectation from the different stakeholders, especially our workforces. I would like to take the chance to underline that this plan is not just a wish list. It is the sum of actions we have already decided and organized, putting the company in a better shape it's never been before.
So much has happened, so many memories. So 4 years ago, as you know, Renault was going through what Jean-Dominique called a dark chapter, one of the most deepest crises in its history. Thank heavens, all of this is now behind us. It's actually easy to forget where the company was just a few years ago. You mustn't forget that in 2020, we were losing dozens of millions of EUR every week, EUR 8 billion for the whole year, and then we had zero for the second half year, H2. And then we were losing EUR 22 million a day, including weekends and public holidays. So the group was going through a crisis of governance.
We didn't have new products to kickstart our business, and the most serious problem that I saw when I joined the company was undoubtedly the fact that the teams had lost confidence, and they were not motivated, which is really not the case at all today. This is why I wanted Renault to be the one to turn Renault around. So it was the people, it was Renault employees who came up with the Renaulution plan. You may remember that the plan was broken up into three phases: resurrection, renovation, and revolution. Now, with resurrection, I think we did we really carried out a structural job on performance. We reduced fixed costs by around EUR 3 billion. That is about 25%.
We actually reduced the breakeven point in three years by half. This is something Renault had never achieved before, and we halved our development time. So what it would cost us to develop one car in the past, we use that same budget today to develop two cars, and we are going to continue to strengthen this discipline. But one thing is very clear, this company is no longer playing in the same playing field that it was in four years ago. As you know, we have managed to do all of this in an environment that's worse than anything that had hit us in decades. Inflation, at least two waves of COVID, all of the challenges facing global supply chains, and then, of course, there was a crisis in Russia.
You may remember the group was badly exposed in Russia, and you may remember that we read in the newspapers that this was probably 1 crisis too many for Renault. Everyone thought we were dying, and actually, we managed to not only offset the shock, but even do better after just six months. Today, we have taken the company to a level of performance that it has had never seen in 1 century. Because in 2023, we had a margin of 7.9%. In 2020, we were at -1%, and we managed to generate that margin with 1 million fewer cars because we gave up on non-profitable sales. What's very important also is that last year we generated EUR 3 billion in cash, and that was EUR 6 billion over 3 years.
In the 10 years preceding the Renaulution, we generated less than EUR 1 billion a year on average. We have also significantly improved the quality of the, of our capital allocation. We started from a return on capital invested of zero, and this should really reassure all of you who give us your money. In 2023, we almost achieved the 30% target that we set ourselves for 2025. So of course, now these results are starting to show up in our share price. I'm sure you check it out every day, although, of course, we still have a long way to go. We are convinced of that. But since the beginning of this year, we have posted the best performance of all shares on the CAC 40.
What makes me particularly proud and happy is that we share the value that we create with all those who contribute to it. So with you, obviously, our shareholders, and later today, we will, after three years, finally be proposing that you can vote in favor of a dividend of EUR 1.85 per share, which is an increase of EUR 1.60 on last year. We also share value with our employees through one of the most ambitious employee share ownership plans in France. 100,000 Renault employees already own Renault shares, and our ambition is to increase their stake to 10% of the company's capital by 2030. Now, these historic results were achieved when we were experiencing a low point in our product cycle.
And now, with the second phase of the Renaulution plan, renovation, the idea was to put the product back at the center of the company, and that is really what's happening now. We've prepared the best range from this company in 30 years, and they're all coming in now. The result is 22 launches that place us at the heart of the European market. Over 50% of these new cars will be either in the C segment or above, 50% pure battery EVs, and almost 90% of the Renaulution range will be either electric cars or electrified cars, that is hybrid cars. This year really is a fantastic firework display with this product offensive with 10 launches. And once again, this is something that the company never did, has never managed to do in the past.
There is, of course, the Renault 5, which is the return of an icon to democratize electric cars in Europe. With Scenic, we have one of the very first family cars designed for the core of the European market. Then you have the new Master, with the very best fuel consumption figures for both electric and ICE engines. In addition to this, we are also continuing to develop our hybrid range to support our global ambitions. With Rafale, this will be the first time that we have had a solid, robust proposition at this level of the market. Then we'll have the Symbioz, a sort of family SUV, a kind of family Swiss army knife. And then we have two other international launches with the Kardian and a new large hybrid SUV for international markets.
For Dacia, Denis, I'm looking at you, we're renewing the Spring, and we've got the third generation of Duster, which is the most popular SUV in Europe. And finally, we are starting the all-new Alpine adventure with the launch of the A290. Let's take a look at this Renaulution lineup in pictures.
[Foreign language]
This is just for this year. We haven't showed you everything that awaits, you know, in the years to come. We are still working on 2025, 2026, and 2027. What we have done is we've rekindled our passion and our love for cars. We've actually gone further than that, because as a result of all of this work we've put in, every vehicle now has the financials that are totally different from what they were before. We've increased the average net income and marginal profit per car by an average of 45% compared with 2020. This means that we have a record, a historic level of margin per vehicle, and in some cases, we've even managed to improve profitability while lowering prices for our customers, thanks to the work we've done on costs.
Thanks to this, this actually, the work we've done on costs is really beginning to show an impact, in spite of the fact that inflation has now once again become structural, unfortunately. We've also structured a very coherent portfolio of brands, with each of which has a clearly defined territory, and I think that the results have already showed up. Finally... First of all, we've restored Renault to its rightful place in Europe. It's moved up from fifth to second place in Europe, and of course, it is, as it should be, number one in France. Dacia is now one of the top ten brands in Europe, and that's historic once again, and it's number two in terms of sales to retail customers.
Dacia really is one of the jewels in Renault Group's crown, with a double-digit operating margin today and a target of achieving 15% by 2030. Since 2020, we've also managed, because we've worked really hard on Alpine, and so we, although we've only got one, the one product right now, but we've still managed to multiply the sales of Alpine by a factor of three. Of course, the A110 is now at the end of its life cycle, so managing to do that is really quite phenomenal. We've paved the way for Alpine's future by bringing it back to the very heart of motorsport, which is Formula 1, and you can see the result today.
We've had the team totally focused on Alpine, and it's one of the most highly valued brands in France, one that is growing very fast, EUR 700 million, six times more than it was worth in 2020. And the chassis part, which is in the F1 team's offices in Enstone, is valued at over $900 million. So of course, as you all know, Alpine's year in Formula 1 has been tough this year, but it's been a very, very rewarding learning experience, and we are in the process of recalibrating the machine for the rest of the race, because we are not here just to make up the numbers. Far from it.
Our clear objective is to win, and we do have high hopes for the endurance races at Le Mans next month, and you will see our Hypercar car there next month. I'll come back later to our ambitions for Alpine. But I also told you that with Renaulution, and this is really important for us, we've reconnected Renault with its roots, and this was so important for all of the staff as well. So over the last few years, we have brought solutions to our customers. For the activity in Cléon, we've put in electric motors there. We've also relaunched Dieppe with the Alpine. We've found solutions for Douai, Maubeuge, and Ruitz with electricity and Ampere. We've got the Refactory in Flins. Batilly is going to get the new Master.
Le Mans will benefit from all of these assignments in France, and we've recently brought this full circle with the assignment of the FlexEVan, a family of next-generation electric LCVs to Sandouville. These are just a few examples. We are so proud to have found innovative and structural solutions for all of the group's plants and sites in France. If you look at all of these projects taken together, they really represent a very strong and renewed commitment to France. If you want to speak in figures, this is actually EUR 80 billion of contribution from Renault to the national GDP in 2030, and the production in France, that is going to double in 2030 compared to what we had in 2019.
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...Last but not least, we've also put Renault back at the heart of the French innovation ecosystem with, with the Software République. Now, consolidating these routes really gave Renault the strength that we needed to set out again to conquer the world. And this is what is happening with our international product plan today, that the Renault brand unveiled at the end of last year with Fabrice Cambolive. EUR 3 billion of investments, 8 new models, including 5 in C and D segments, and sales per unit, which will be doubled by 2027. We are setting up five hubs in Latin America, in Korea, in India, in Turkey, and in Morocco. And each time, the aim is to produce for the local market, but also to be an export base for the region of these countries and, or even beyond that region, if it's possible.
Every time we work in partnership with the very best. For example, in Korea, we have a partnership with Geely, and I think this was the best solution we could have imagined for the interests of Renault in Korea. Now, with resurrection and renovation, we have put Renault, as you heard already from Jean-Dominique, we've put Renault back at the top, at the top level of, of the automotive industry, and at the top level it's ever been in its history. And, you know, we were able to convince ourselves that we had a very skilled, very competent, very united, and a very courageous management team. And for us, that was just the beginning, because the automotive industry is going through a transformation that is deeper than anything it's experienced in the last 150 years. So we really had a vital need of acceleration.
But the good news is, that no one has a stronger appetite than anyone who than someone who's come close to death and has just been let out of hospital. So that's what we needed to launch revolution, to make Renault a car company of the coming generation. And that's what really we've been working on for the last two years. The idea is quite a simple one. For 125 years, car makers had to play in just one sport around the value chain of ICE vehicles. Today, new value chains are emerging, are growing. Electric cars, software, new mobilities, the circular economy, and all of these are new sports, and they're completely different.
So the most logical thing to do, obviously, is to ensure that you have teams that are specialized in each of these sports, rather than asking everyone to do a little bit of everything. And that's why we've created compact teams of dedicated specialists, Ampere, Alpine, Mobilize, and The Future Is NEUTRAL. And of course, let's not forget our traditional métier, our traditional business, which is power, and which looks after the our ICE cars, and it's the trunk on which the other branches grow. So ICE cars are not dead, but they need to be reinvented in order to win the decarbonization race. So we know that depending on the energy mix, efficient ICE engines can often be, can emit less carbon than electric vehicles if you look at the whole life cycle of the vehicle from cradle to grave.
Actually, you can go even further than that if you innovate. This is why we wanted to put ourselves back in a position to reinvent ICE technologies by aiming for solutions with ultra-low emissions, where synthetic or e-fuels or other kinds of hydro- or hydrogen. So now, that's why we have Horse, and it's our champion in the supply of ICE power units. By joining forces with Geely, with sales of EUR 15 billion worth in 130 countries, we will have the scale we need to so that we can decarbonize combustion technologies. So the group's ICE activities will continue to generate very positive and growing results over the years to come. Now, for the electricity, for EVs and for software, we have Ampere.
It's the very first pure player to emerge from the disruption of a traditional car maker, to seek out opportunities in this new sport, where everything is so different, from the management of supply chain, to development cycles, to design, customer interaction, and the very central role played by software technologies. So everyone's still talking about EVs, but you can't really have an EV without software. So Ampere is this new athlete, new generation athlete, who is 100% focused on this new discipline, which is an intelligent EV. That's why, for us, we have added a little small i before EV to ensure that they are intelligent EVs. Ampere's job is to design, produce, and market Renault's electric vehicles to project this brand into the future. But not only that, because Ampere is also a platform whose vocation will be to serve other car makers.
We sized it to win the race towards price parity between EVs and ICE vehicles. In fact, it is the European industry's fullest and most substantial response to the new competition that is now coming in, both from the East and the West. Ampere, it has now been up and running for almost 6 months, from the first of November last year, and it's already showing the first signs of success. Now, for the last 18 years, Renault had not won Car of the Year, and now we've, we did it with the Scenic, and this is a car that came out of Ampere. At the Geneva Motor Show, the presentation of the R5 exceeded all our expectations, with 75,000 customers that have already put their names down on the waiting list.
This car was absolutely unanimously praised and welcomed by the press, by experts, by financial analysts, as well as our customers. We've also announced the Twingo, which we're going to be producing in two years, and with which we aim to bring Europeans on board with a solution for urban mobility that is affordable and competitive. That's also a car that's going to be made by Ampere. Finally, our ambition to reduce costs by 20% by 40% by 2027 or 2028 is already bearing fruit. We can see this in our current range, with reductions in cost and price without any reduction in margins.
So the machine is now up and running, with the spirit of agility and entrepreneurship that we have adopted, and we are more than ever on our way to achieving the very high ambitions that we announced right at the start. A complete lineup of seven vehicles in one of Europe's fastest-growing markets. Ampere will break even from next year, and it will post a double-digit margin in 2030. We've also created Mobilize. The idea with Mobilize is to develop our activities in order to capture value in the world of leasing and charging infrastructure and, management of energy, beyond what we do traditionally with our brands, as you know. So, in other words, Mobilize a new kind of car brand, which is designed to go from service to the product and not the other way around. We also have TFIN, The Future Is NEUTRAL.
It is the very first 360-degree circular economy platform for the automotive industry. Our ambition is to cover the entire circular economy value chain, moving from 50% to 90% coverage by 2030, with a scope of activity that will be doubled compared to 2021, and once again, double-digit profitability. Now, to control the value chain of reconversion and recycling, we are forging partnerships with leaders in infrastructure and in chemicals. One of our ambitions is to develop a project for the recycling of batteries in a short loop. And, of course, there's Alpine. We reinvented it, giving it the opportunity, for the first time, to become a global brand for sports car enthusiasts like me, like all of you, surely.
The A110 is not going to be on its own for much longer, because the rest of the story is coming with a complete lineup of 100% electric and maybe potentially hydrogen engine cars. Alpine is on track to become a global brand with a target of 50% of volumes outside Europe by 2030. We are going to achieve all of this with a mix of our own assets, with our partners, and especially with a new platform that is dedicated to Alpine, with its own technologies. This is what we call the APP, the Alpine Performance Platform, and it is designed to bring motion, lightness, and agility to the world of electric cars.
Finally, I'd like to talk about something that isn't really too visible from the outside, but which is likely to be one of the most revolutionary things that we've ever done. At the level of the Renault Group, we are creating a digital twin of the entire company. We're the very first to do this in our sector, and by 2025, 2026, all of Renault is going to be on the cloud. In concrete terms, we are developing, through strategic partnerships, six digital platforms that will manage the six of the company's major processes, from development through to sales and finance.
We are connecting these six platforms up in order to break down silos, to harmonize data so that it can flow seamlessly throughout the group, and to ensure that we can make much quicker decisions, and so that we can also gain interactivity and simplicity. This digitization of the company also opens up incredible prospects for the application of AI to increase our ability, ability to anticipate and adapt in an environment that is changing so fast. A very concrete example of this is our industrial Metaverse, with already 13,000 machines that are connected up, and also 3 billion bits of data collected every day. This is what underpins our ambition to reduce our energy consumption per vehicle produced by 30% by 2025, compared with 2021. We have this program that we call AI at Scale.
Through the deployment of a dozen projects on priority uses of AI, this could help us to generate, this year, about EUR 150 million, and obviously, hopefully, even more in the years to come. For example, in addition to the prediction of energy consumption or the automation of vision controls in our plants. Now, in addition to the idea of specializing our teams, there's also a second principle at the heart of our revolution, which is the choice of a horizontal and ecosystem-based approach.
In mature technologies and stable markets, scale and efficiency were the mantra on everyone's lips. When technology becomes evolutionary and demands becomes volatile as it is today, we've got to have a different approach, and we have to put agility and innovation at the very heart of the system, and that is what the horizontal approach is all about. We partner with the very best, with those who have the chance of finding just the right technology. We're not going to delegate innovation, nor are we going to pretend that we can do everything just by ourselves. What we are doing is to co-develop, and this will make it possible for us to de-risk, to maintain technological agility, to maintain our options, to share investments, and to expose our teams to the most innovative organizations across the whole value chain.
So we are going to learn from our partners every day. So making Renault a company, a next-generation company, therefore, meant making it an open company. And over the last four years, we have signed 20 strategic partnerships, and we work with the very best. From Google, CATL for batteries, Qualcomm, and Geely, and many, many others. This network of partnerships is already, in my opinion, a unique resource for the group, and we are going to continue to weave our web. Let me give you a good example of this. It's Flexis, our partnership with Volvo and CMA CGM. With Flexis, we've created what we call the FlexEVan. It's going to be a family of revolutionary products to meet the challenges of electrification for professionals and to reduce the impact of urban mobility. FlexEVan will be the very first software-defined vehicle of the Renault Group.
It's a bit like the Tesla of commercial vehicles, and thanks to its connectivity and thanks to the platform that offers it exceptional agility and modularity, we are aiming to reduce the total cost of ownership by up to 30%. In other words, this is equivalent to the purchase price of the vehicle that we are putting back into our customer's pocket over the life of this vehicle. And with Flexis, we are putting ourselves in the right position to revolutionize last mile delivery, and we are building end-to-end logistics solutions that go beyond simple cars. We are seizing the opportunity offered by a market for electric commercial vehicles that is set to grow by 40% a year between now and 2030.
I'd also like to mention, like Jean-Dominique did, because I think it's really important, all the work that we've done around the reinvention of the Alliance, based on a very pragmatic approach, based on strategic agility, with operational projects, concrete projects, as you heard from Jean-Dominique, that each partner can join, not because they have to, but because it makes sense for them in business terms. So the comments that you may hear here or there should not detract from the vital point. We are doing exactly what we said we would do. So on the one hand, we are rebalancing our shareholdings between Nissan and Renault, and on the other hand, we are activating concrete projects, as we've done in India, as Jean-Dominique said, or as we're doing with the MICRA here. So with it, it'll be the very...
So the MICRA actually is going to be, it's going to be the very first Nissan to be produced in a Renault plant in the last 10 years. And this time, the decision will have been taken based totally on business reasons and not for political or strategic reasons. We are also in the process of making Renault the most committed car maker to ensuring that future mobility is driven by fair innovation, which forgets neither the environment, nor our customers, nor our employees. And I'm really proud of this. We have now entered the ESG CAC 40 list, and we are now the number one car maker in Moody's Analytics ESG ranking. We have reduced the group's overall carbon footprint by 28% between 2010 and 2023.
We were the only ones to do it, and this is a result of more than a decade of investment and work that we're accelerating now. So this means we are well on the way to achieving carbon neutrality by 2040 in Europe, and by 2050 worldwide. The group's teams are fully committed to this path of decarbonization. On the industrial scope, the group plans to reduce its emissions by 50% by 2025 and by 80% by 2030, compared to 2019. This, of course, means reducing the energy consumption on our sites, so 30% less per vehicle produced in 2025 compared to 2021. It also involves renewable energy supply contracts. We are aiming for 80% renewable electricity for our sites by 2030.
Now, on the upstream side, we're aiming for a 30% reduction in our material footprint and a 35% reduction for battery production footprint by 2030. On the downstream side, our objective is to reduce emissions at the point of use by 20% by 2025, and 35% by 2030. And this, of course, is based on the electrification of our range. And at the same time, our transformation into a next-gen automotive company is gathering pace. I believe that we all of our strategy is headed in the same direction. TFI helps, so The Future Is NEUTRAL, rather, helps us to increase the amount of recycled materials in our vehicles. Ampere will have a carbon-neutral industry by 2025. So by 2025, the electricity pole will be carbon neutral.
Mobilize is innovating in the use of batteries after their first life. So we are making Renault into an increasingly inclusive company, involving everyone in the automotive transition. Our ReKnow University is developing a transformation program for skills towards the professions of the new value chain of mobility, and I think that that is unique in Europe. We are talking. So this goes beyond the group. We are talking about 25,000 people that have been trained since 2021, and this has gone beyond the aim we had. And now, our objective is to have trained 35,000 people by the end of 2025, including 5,000 people outside the group, so that, that would be for our suppliers. We are also making progress on equality and diversity.
Since the start of the Renaulution, more than 50% of our strategic hires have been women. And what also makes us very proud is the reduction to zero of the gender pay gap that we finally achieved last year in 2023, and we achieved it two years ahead of schedule. Finally, with OneHealth, we are setting up a global health program. We are setting up a global health program for group employees with the aim of giving them access to the best services with their families. And this is in the same tradition of Renault as a social laboratory, but we brought it up to date now. And I think we can say that we've led the Renaulution with flying colors.
If you just count the list of structuring initiatives we've undertaken, there's been over 150 projects initiated in the very first 1,000 days of the Renaulution. That's practically one new project a week. And we are still... We are accelerating, because in the current transition, one of the key elements is going to be speed of execution. And this is why we have just launched a new project called the Speed of Lightness. So not the speed of light, but the speed of lightness, and this is a specific program to increase the speed of execution by a factor of two or three in 10 or so of the company's key processes, and it's happening now. The best example, of course, is the new Twingo, because we will have developed it in just two years.
It's the kind of thing that it normally took this industry three to five years to do, and we are going to make it in less than 24 months. This is not something you can just decide on when you wake up one morning. It means completely re-engineering our whole system and the system of our suppliers as well. But of course, it's something we have to do since we're going to be faced with competition from Tesla and Chinese car makers. Today, Renault is approaching the future from a position of renewed strength. Of course, leadership is a huge responsibility, and it is to this responsibility that I address this letter that I published, the open letter that I published to Europe in March.
Because we want Renault to be a driving force in a process that can only be collective, because the issues do not concern just our sector. So I'm going to give you a short presentation of this letter.
[Foreign language]
[Foreign language]
The interpreters apologize, but that was, very, very fast, impossible to translate. So, ladies and gentlemen, and, my dear shareholders, my dear members of the board of directors, I would once again like to thank you for the confidence that you, have had in me over the last four years. The future has to be prepared from today, and I think we're very well placed to know that it will not going to be a walk in the park either. It's our ability to anticipate the upcoming tectonic shifts, and therefore to reinvent our industry, that will really make the difference. And I can tell you that we've already got a few surprises in store, so that Renault can capture value from new activities that are adjacent to and connected to the automotive industry. I think we're going to be able to put...
to give ourselves the right advantages to ensure the company's continued success for decades to come. I'd like to hand over to Thierry Piéton, who is our very dear Chief Financial Officer. And he's dear, but he's also famous. Thierry, you have the floor.
Well, thank you, Luca. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm really delighted to be here with you to discuss the financial performance of 2023, and look at sales trends and the latest development for the first quarter of 2024. As Jean-Dominique and Luca pointed out, 2023 was a record year. Renault Group published historic results, with each of its financial indicators showing strong improvement. We recorded profitability and cash generation levels above the initially announced, upwardly revised outlook, and beyond market expectations as well. These results are the fruit of a huge collective effort. They demonstrate the success, of course, of our cars, but they're also the effectiveness of our value-driven sales policy and the reduction of our breakeven point by over 50%.
Starting with sales, in 2023, Renault Group sold 2.2 million vehicles, up 9% compared to 2022. The three brands, Renault, Dacia, and Alpine, all contributed to the increase. In addition to the effects of our commercial policy I mentioned, we're benefiting from the initial results of our product offensive, especially in the C and higher segments. On these segments, group sales were up 26% over the period in Europe, reaching over 666,000 units. This accounted for about 42% of sales at end of 2023, and this confirms our success in these profitable segments, both for the Renault and the Dacia brand. Sorry.
The Renault brand sold 1.5 million vehicles in 2023, up 9.4%, making it the best-selling French brand in the world, and positions it in the second position in Europe for both private cars and LCVs at the end of 2023. The brand maintained its sales volume to private customers at an optimum level, accounting for more than one third of, more than one in two vehicles in 2023. It also made significant progress in Europe in LCVs, including pickups, with a growth of over 25%, taking it to the first position in this market. Dacia sales were also up 14.7% over the same period, with more than 658,000 vehicles sold.
The brands, four flagship brands, Sandero, Duster, Jogger, and Spring, all contributed to this increase, and two of them are among the best-selling passenger cars in Europe. Alpine achieved a new sales record with over 4,300 vehicles sold, up 22% compared with 2022, and that brand was particularly driven by the success of limited editions of the A110. And then finally, we started 2024 with a very healthy inventory position, below 500,000 units, and an order book at 2.5 months of sale, again, reflecting the success of our products. Sales revenue, group revenues were up 13.1% in 2023, reaching EUR 52.4 billion. At constant exchange rates, sales would have been up 17.9%.
Automotive sales were up 11.7% to reach EUR 48.2 billion. This benefited mainly from price and product mix effects of over 8 points, and this is essentially due to the group's value-oriented sales policy, which I already mentioned, but also price increases to offset inflation and the success of new launches, such as Austral and the hybrid Espace E-Tech hybrid model. Sorry, the above mentioned 9.4% increase in registrations was partially offset by lower dealer restocking than at the end of 2022, resulting in a four point volume effect on sales. Mobility services contributed to group sales to the tune of EUR 45 million in 2005, compared with EUR 35 million the previous years.
Then finally, our financial captive, our bank, Mobilize Financial Services, generated revenues of EUR 4.2 billion, up almost 32%. This was mainly due to higher interest rates, but also an increase in the average amount financed per vehicle, and also the growth of the total number of cars with a financial package. Let's look at our operating margin. This was up over 60% in 2023, reaching EUR 4.1 billion, or 7.9% of revenue, up 2.4 percentage points compared to 2022. Should note that the group's operating margin includes EUR 482 million positive impact from Horse, due to the restating of Horse assets as assets held for sales, and so the association of the depreciation rules.
The improvement in performance was driven by significant growth in the automotive segment's operating margin, which more than doubled compared with 2022 to EUR 3.1 billion, or 6.3% of sales. Our financing business, which is Mobilize Financial Services, contributed EUR 1.1 billion to the group's operating margin. If you look at this chart, the numbers speak for themselves. They show the, they demonstrate the speed and robustness of our transformation plan over the past three years. The operating profit of 7.9% of sales for 2022 is a new record for the group. It reached 7.6% of sales in the first half, and even, and improved further in the second half, reaching 8.1% in H2.
We keep closing the gap with our best competitors by focusing on improving our performance. Let's look now at our income statement. The other operating income and expenses amounted to -EUR 1.6 billion in 2023, and this is due essentially to four factors. Number one, there was a capital loss to the tune of EUR 0.9 billion on the disposal of Nissan shares, but this had no cash impact. Second, restructuring costs to the tune of EUR 4.4 billion. Thirdly, EUR 0.5 billion in write-downs on production assets and vehicle development. These three effects were partially offset by asset disposals worth EUR 0.3 billion. Net financial expense amounted to EUR 527 million in 2023.
The change, compared with 2022, is explained essentially by hyperinflation in Argentina, which is partially offset by the positive effects of higher interest rates on our net cash position, which itself has significantly improved. Contribution of associates to groups and to group earnings amounted to EUR 880 million in 2023, up EUR 457 million. Nissan alone contributed EUR 797 million in 2023, compared with EUR 526 million in 2022. Income tax was EUR 523 million. This is in line with 2022. The effect of the increase in pre-tax income related to improvement in operating margin was offset by a change in deferred taxes.
As a result, the group's net income was up EUR 3 billion, reaching EUR 2.3 billion in 2023. You have to remember that back in 2022, net income from discontinued operations amounted to -EUR 2.3 billion, due to the non-cash adjustment charge linked to the disposal, you may remember, of Russian manufacturing activities. In 2023, our group generated a new record of operating free cash flow from the automotive position, division, amounting to more than EUR 3 billion, compared with EUR 2.1 billion in 2022. This sharp rise was essentially due to the significant improvement in automotive margins, and to a lesser degree, due to the positive change in the working capital requirements of EUR 637 million, and that was mainly a result of lower inventories.
This record performance is all the more remarkable, as it was achieved with only 2.2 million vehicles sold over the full year, while financing our Ampere new business. Operating record level of operating free cash flow, together with the disposal of our of a 24% stake in Alpine Racing Limited, and the positive effect of the sale of the disposal of Nissan shares, all this contributed to improve our net financial position, automotive net financial position, which improved to reach EUR 3.7 billion in 2023, an improvement of almost EUR 3.2 billion compared with 2022. Regarding the liquidity reserves, they remain very comfortable at EUR 17.8 billion in 2023. In 2023, we repaid one-...
EUR 1.2 billion in bonds, and in the first half of the year, we prepaid the balance of the loan guaranteed by the French government, the French guaranteed loan. As you know, most agencies covering us have raised their rating or their outlook for Renault in 2023, as recently as last week. Moody's raised its outlook on its financial rating from stable to positive. So we are therefore progressing towards our priority, which is to return to an investment grade rating. In this context, our dividend policy is clear. We intend to increase our dividend gradually, with the aim of achieving a payout ratio of 35% of net income group share, as soon, of course, as we are once again rated investment grade by the rating agencies.
So we're therefore asking you to approve the payment of a dividend of EUR 1.85 per share for the financial year 2023. This is a significant increase on last year. The payout ratio stands now at 17.5%. Over and beyond the increased dividend, Renault's share price performance is also a clear sign of its improved performance. And indeed, since January 1, 2023, we've significantly outperformed our two benchmark indices, the CAC 40 and auto stocks, which include the ten largest European automakers and automotive suppliers. Since the beginning of 2024, the Renault share has posted the strongest performance in the CAC 40. Now, rest assured that we are 100% focused on continuing to improve the group's operating and cash generation performance.
This strong growth potential is now being recognized by financial analysts, who monitor our share, 71% of whom have a buy recommendation on that stock. Let's move on to the year 2024, to this year, to look at the outlook and sales for the first quarter. We registered 549,000 vehicles in the first quarter of 2024, an increase of 2.6% compared with Q1 2023. The Renault brand sold more than 365,000 vehicles, up 3.1%, while Dacia recorded 3.2%, with over 177,000 cars sold.
In Europe in particular, the group was able to maintain its volume growth, thanks to the dynamism of these three brands, with 391,000 vehicles sold, up 4.3%. In Europe, group sales rose by 1.8% in the first quarter of 2024, to reach EUR 11.7 billion on a constant exchange rate basis. Sales were up 5.9%. Our order book in Europe still represents 2.5 months of future sales. This reflects the success of our models and a very good year, a very good start of the year, rather, in terms of order intake, even before we begin benefiting from the 10 launches that are to take place between now and the end of the year. By way of conclusion, let's look at our financial outlook.
The performance in Q1 reinforces our confidence and determination to achieve not only our financial targets for this year, but also for the medium term. We therefore confirm our financial outlook for 2024, with group operating margin above 7.5% and operating free cash flow of at least EUR 2.5 billion. Our product offensive and the acceleration of our cost reduction strategy will continue to strengthen our operating performance and underpin our ability to generate free cash flow in 2024. Thank you so much for your attention. I would like to call on Mr. Bertrand Pruvost from KPMG to present a summary of the statutory auditor's reports. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Piéton. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
On behalf of the statutory auditors, KPMG and Mazars , I would like to present a summary of the reports prepared for your attention. These reports have been made available to you and are reproduced in full in the notice of this AGM. For the year 2023, we issued eight reports covering the annual financial statements, the consolidated financial statements, remuneration of redeemable shares, related party agreements, and finally, four reports on several transactions relating to the share capital. In the first report, we give an unqualified opinion on the financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2023. In addition, in keeping with regulations, we've set out in our opinion reports the key points of our audit of Renault Group's annual and consolidated financial statements.
Regarding the annual financial statements, this concerns the valuation of equity investments and related receivables. We also issue an unqualified opinion on the 2023 consolidated financial statements for the Renault Group. Our controls were performed at material entities and on transactions likely to have a material impact on these financial statements. The key points of the audit brought to your attention in respect of these consolidated financial statements are three. The first is the recoverable value of assets in the automotive sector. Second is about the accounting methods and recoverable amount of Renault's investment in Nissan. And finally, the third point is the calculation of the expected losses on sales financing receivables. For each of these items, we reviewed the accounting methods applied and satisfied ourselves as to the reasonableness of the estimates made by Renault Group.
This report also includes a technical observation that draws the reader's attention to the impacts described in the notes to the financial statements of the first time adoption of the IFRS 17 standard on insurance contracts. We've issued two additional reports for the ordinary general meeting. The first report is about redeemable shares. In this report, we attest the compliance of the variable remuneration calculation elements for these securities with the terms of the issue contract. We also attest to the figures taken from the group's consolidated financial statements. The second report concerns related party agreements. This describes the main terms and conditions of such agreements brought to our attention between your company and its corporate offices or between your company and companies with common directors.
The agreements already approved by your AGM and which remained in force during the year 2023 are also described in our report. The five agreements authorized by the board of directors during the year and submitted for your approval today, there are five of them. The first four were concluded with Nissan Motors Limited and concern the framework agreement and its addendum, the new Alliance agreement and its rider, the Ampere Investment Agreement, the notice of transfer of Nissan shares, and the fifth and final related party agreement submitted for your approval is the deed of termination of the governance agreement was entered into between this company and the French state. Finally, in connection with the extraordinary general meeting, we issued four special reports on resolutions likely to affect the share capital.
These transactions were carried out in accordance with the provisions of French Commercial Code, and we have no comments or observations to bring to your attention. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention.
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much, Mr. Pruvost, for that quite brief but very precise presentation. Now, ladies and gentlemen, it is Mr. Pierre Fleuriot who will be presenting an overview of the work of the Board of Directors and will be talking to you about the compensation or remuneration policies for corporate officers. Once again, I would really like to pay tribute to the work carried out by the board and extend my warmest thanks to its members. In my view, a company's long-term performance, to a large extent, depends on the quality-
...
of the relationship between the board and the management team. The balance is always difficult to keep. It's tricky. You need to have confidence in each other, but not get too comfortable. You need to work together, but without complacency. You need to listen. You do a lot of listening, but very regularly, but without mixing up who is who, each keeping to their role, their role. I firmly believe that the relationship between the board and the management was once again marked this year by that rare alchemy made up of trust, mutual understanding, and listening. In addition to that quality of relations, of course, the performance naturally depends on the quality of the top management and the leadership of the CEO. On this subject, I would like to share with you one observation and one conviction.
The observation is that all of the figures that were mentioned by Luca and Thierry were all the targets that were achieved, most of them two years ahead of schedule. The conviction is that it really does deserve to be looked at, because it is not that easy to achieve. The board's proposal to adjust Mr. de Meo's remuneration, which Pierre Fleuriot will present in detail, deserves to be supported. It reflects a recognition of the work accomplished and the encouragement to continue this work. Pierre, thank you so much for your work and for your work as the lead director. You've done such a great job. You have the floor.
[Foreign language], Jean-Dominique.
Thank you, dear Jean-Dominique, and ladies and gentlemen, and shareholders, in my capacity as Chairman of the Governance and Remuneration Committee, and as Lead Director, it is my responsibility to present to you a summary of the activities of your board of directors and to talk to you about the elements of remuneration of the corporate officers. First, let's take a look at the activities of the board of directors. The activity was pretty intense this year, as you can see, with the number of meetings-
... So 13 board meetings this year, last year, instead of 12 the year before, and 17 committee meetings, sorry, 21 committee meetings as compared to 17 in 2022. So it was not just the number of meetings that was important, it was also the activity during the meetings and the content of those meetings. Now, the detail of the activities of the board and its committees are given to you in chapter 3 of the URD, and that's available on the company's website. And this report also presents the conclusions of the evaluation of the board's operation carried out this year by an independent firm. But I would also like to talk to you about the main themes that were discussed this year.
There are three themes: the group's, the group, group's strategy, the renewal of the Alliance with Nissan, and sustainable development. Now, for the group strategy, you've heard about that. We had several discussions concerning the implementation of the Renaulution plan, and that was illustrated this year by the setting up of Horse, the joint venture agreement with Geely, the creation and the launch of Ampere, the partnership between Renault, Volvo, and CMA CGM to create the Flexis joint venture, the strategy and development of the circular economy business with The Future Is NEUTRAL, and the roadmap for Mobilize. So all of this has meant a lot of discussions within the board of directors.
I'd also like to point out that the board of directors traveled to Morocco this year to visit the huge plant in Tangiers, and its ecosystem with the Port of Tangers Med, which was really equipped, set up, with Renault in mind. Now, the second theme, sorry, was the Alliance with Nissan. This was something that we talked about intensely during H1 this year, and so we agreed to the agreement that was signed on the 26th of July 2023, and that will be submitted for your approval in resolution 6 to 10 today. Now, sustainable development, there again, the committee for strategy and sustainable development decided to be heavily involved in monitoring the implementation of the group's ESG strategy.
You saw the illustrations of the success of that strategy, and also the board of directors held a seminar dedicated to ESG, during which a member of the IPCC presented the various climate challenges to us. Now, the composition of the board of directors, which you now have on the screen. So in terms of percentage and the level of, the rate of independence is higher than 50%, and higher. And the number of women is higher than 40%. That means we have high standards from this point of view. And this year, we are not going to renew, so we will be renewing all of the members, except for three employee directors, and that will lead to elections that will take place in H2 of this year.
So now let's go to the second part of my presentation, which deals with the remuneration of the corporate officers. Let's start with the chairman of the board. I'm going to talk about remuneration for 2023, as well as the elements that are proposed to you for 2024. As far as the chairman is concerned, Mr. Jean-Dominique Senard, the remuneration that he was paid corresponds to the authorization you gave us last year, EUR 450,000, and no other elements at all were used for compensation, and that was also the case for Luca de Meo. They were not paid for any directorships. This is resolution number 14. And number 16 for 2024, the same amount, EUR 450,000, with no other elements.
Now, let's take a look at the CEO. 2023 and 2024. For 2023, it's exactly... These are exactly the terms that you fixed during the AGM last year, EUR 1.3 million for fixed payment, EUR 1.95 million of variable remuneration, insofar as the board had noted that the performance criteria would have been met, and given the performance of the group. The third element is with the performance shares, 97,500 performance shares were allocated and would be paid only once the four performance criteria will have been achieved for 2023, 2024, and 2025.
And also co-investment, which means that your CEO will achieved, acquired 7,790 performance shares, which can obviously be doubled, if once performance conditions have been assessed for 2024, 2025 and 2026. So that, there's no surprise there. Now, 2024, this is a very important decision, because this is about the renewal of the new, of the contract for four years to come for Mr. Luca de Meo. The work done, on this project that has been... is going to be put to your vote, took a long time. Last year, we had 3 meetings of, the compensation committee-...
The board met several times as well, so this took us a long time to discuss this and to achieve the contract for the new mandate, which means that we've actually looked at all of the main principles that define this remuneration. First of all, simplified remuneration to reduce the number of tools for remuneration. So we decided to do away with co-investment, and therefore, to reduce the number of performance criteria that were being used, because they seemed very complex, and they seemed repetitive. So simplification, that's the first thing. The second thing is to upgrade. It's quite clear that we do want to ensure that we can keep Mr.
Luca de Meo and motivate him for the four years to come, and therefore, we needed to ensure that his remuneration was as attractive as that of his peers in equivalent companies. So this meant that we had to define a panel that you have on your, on the screen here, which is modified compared to last year, to take into consideration some of the observations that have been made by some shareholders. And so we removed the non-European car makers, the Japanese and the American car makers, and we've added more European car makers, like Audi and Ferrari. We've also added OEMs, like Continental and Michelin and Pirelli, and other companies that are in the industrial sector, but that have activities that are not far from the automotive sector and that we work with.
That's why we have this new panel. The idea was to position Mr. de Meo's remuneration on the mean line of this. So you have the three histograms here. So the white part is the current remuneration. You can see it's very, very low compared to his peers. And the one in the middle that is, so the total is on the third column, and you can see that we are now at the level of the mean of the market. So this compensation is made up, therefore, of several elements. There's one first element, which concerns a fixed remuneration of EUR 1.7 million, and that is in the mean of our comparable panel.
Then, one, a variable share, which is, for which there's a ceiling fixed of 225%, and which is possibly going to be proposed to the best managers of Renault, so obviously, to the CEO as well. So long-term remuneration, LTI, so 120,000 performance shares and performance criteria will be evaluated over 2025, 2025, and 2026. And then we also have, for the shareholder, there are four criteria that will lead to the payout or not payout of these 120,000 shares. And now for additional criteria for the future, he needs to keep the shares, one third of the shares and not 25%, which was the case up to now. Then the last part, which is Renaulution.
Now, here, this is about stimulating the continuity of the implementation of the strategy throughout his contract, with a compensation that will may be possible at the end of his term, with a very demanding criteria, which will help us also to protect the future, to ensure that the evolution and the transformation of the group will continue, and can continue on robust or robust basis in the future. So this compensation for re, Renaulution is a single one f- over four years, for the whole of the four-year mandate, and the performance condish- conditions will be as assessed over the cumulative period of four years.
The total value of shares may not exceed a maximum of EUR 4.4 million, and the shares will be subject to a one-year holding period after the four years, so they can only be sold one year later. And there will be a clawback clause, which means that either the board may decide to not pay out or decide to take back what has been paid out, if conditions impose it. Now, other parts of compensation?
These are standard parts of Luca de Meo's contract. Regarding the compensation for members of the board for the years 2022 and 2023 and 2024, for 2023, it's resolution number 13. That was adopted last year, and so there will be... Well, the fees will be paid on the basis of, on the number of meetings and the attendance ratio, attendance rate, I beg your pardon. You're looking at about EUR 1 million all together. The total amount was EUR 1.5 million, and so it's about 70% of that amount that has been therefore spent in 2023. The amount, EUR 1.5 million, was defined in 2018, hasn't changed since. For 2024, this is resolution number 18, and that's the final resolution.
There's an amendment. It proposes to increase, and this is only for board meetings. The fixed part grows from EUR 18,000 to EUR 20,000 , and then a variable part, which is increased from EUR 35,000 to EUR 40,000, and that is attendance. So it's paid on the basis of actual attendance of board meetings. So if you compare it with the total budget for 2023, we find that even then we haven't reached the full amount because we're looking at best at 95% instead of 70% is still under the cap. Thank you for your attention. I'll give the floor back to Jean-Dominique.
Well, thank you, Pierre, for this very clear presentation.
This is a complex exercise to be so concise in such complex matters. Dear shareholders, this is an important part of our AGM, of our meeting. This is a time of exchange with our shareholders, and we're always happy to exchange with you on any issue. Before we start with this Q&A session, let me just tell you that answers to the question that we put to you, to us in writing by a number of shareholders, the answers are to be found on our website. Quitterie de Pelleport will give you some standard rules for this exchange.
This is nothing new, but always best to remind you how it works. To allow as many people as possible to speak, please do not speak for more than a minute and a half. Please remain seated, and if you wish to take the floor, please raise your hands. There will be attendants coming to you with a microphone, and we'll let you know when you can speak. And now, I'll give the floor to our chairman for this Q&A session.
Thank you, Quitterie. So before we start, let me just say that this AGM and the special shareholder days are special moments of exchange. On the fifth of April, together with Luca de Meo, we were able to have a direct discussion with some shareholders to talk about the group's strategy, and I hope you'll have further such exchanges during the year. And just like we did today, it's always good to have a site visit on such occasions.
Let's have a look at what we did last time.
Welcome to this Shareholders' Day. You can imagine how happy we are with Luca to welcome you here. And today, we've all... We've had historic results, and these are the results of a huge adventure that was based on loyalty and confidence. "I'm so happy to be with you here today," says Luca de Meo. We know that many of you have continued to support the group, even through storms, so we know that it's you that we have to thank. It was such a great day, so much to learn. The morning was amazing because we were able to see that the group has bought one of the best driving simulators in the world. It's great to see these labs and the way they're organized. I'm so impressed at the equipment that is used by Renault.
Also impressed by the skills of the people, the competence level of the people whom we were speaking to. So our innovations, our new products, all of this revolution that Luca has brought into the group over the last few years now, has really impressed people. So Renault Group is at the very edge of technology and really is a next-generation company. So the idea behind this next-gen automotive industry is that we've created teams that are only focused on one thing at a time, and they're trying to doing it at, to the best possible. This was very smart, this strategy, and the, and results that have come in after just three years, it's so fast. So, you know, obviously, this is an revolutionary organization, it's Renault, but that's no reason for us to forget our fundamentals.
It's really the objects that are important. It's what we make that's important. I've had a fantastic day. I've seen all these beautiful models, and you can really see that the group is renewing itself because all these cars are for everyone. You can find there are cars for everybody. So I'm very confident, both on the investments that have been made for technology, as well as on the renewal of design, whether it's for Dacia, Alpine, or Renault. I think we've done some extraordinary stuff with Jean-Dominique and the whole team. So we are focused, but we're also pretty serene. We believe, I believe that Renault's reputation is changing in dimension. People are talking about us at every level with affection, and that's something that really warms our spirits.
Right. So to start off the discussion, I suggest we begin with a question from a member of our Shareholders' Advisory Committee, and then we'll take questions from the floor, and indeed, questions that were sent to us via chat on our website, as we decided to retain, keep this means of communication, which was introduced during our in-camera meetings for shareholders following this meeting remotely. I'd like to know, why was it that Ampere was not IPO'd after all the announcements?
... Well, maybe Luca can take that question.
Look, the first thing I'd like to say is that Ampere is an industrial project rather than a financial project. The IPO was one of the scenarios considered to finance that project. And that's... Well, when the circumstances were different. You have to realize this is a time-consuming process, but also at the time, EV start-ups were emerging here and there. There was money floating. This is no longer the case, but right now, in any case, cash is harder to come by. We will see how things go. But at the time, it seemed like an option to have an IPO, and circumstances have changed since.
But in the meantime, another thing happened, is we found that we ourselves were in a position to generate quite a lot of cash on our own. So we didn't need investor, outside investor money to fund this. So the combination of both factors meant that we can, we can stick to the project, but move on to a different financial scenario. What we need to do was to implement that plan, to roll out the industrial plan of Ampere. That's. So that's happening, and we no longer needed the cash, and so. There was no need to go on with the IPO since we no longer needed it. Yes, and that decision was unanimous. We thought about this.
I mean, we looked at, at this very much in depth, and I can confirm that that, that was the right decision in that context.
Now, I'll- let's give the floor to someone. The next question from the, audience, I see, number three and then number six. Sir, number three.
Good afternoon, Mr. Senard. I, I looked at a presentation from, an equipment manufacturer, the outlook for 2023. They were looking at 12% of, the, global, EV market, 23% for the, ICE cars, and almost 67%, for, hybrid. And then the numbers, are now moving to 21% for, hybrid. We have, five, well, you have the Alliance, Hyundai, Stellantis. So in the electric car, we have, Tesla, BYD, Volkswagen, Kia, and another one.
Anyway, France is not really on the picture there. But my son is graduating from middle school, and he tells us about World War I, the taxis of the Marne River, the revolution in 1968. But what's the position of Renault? Renault is the ADN of France, DNA of France, isn't it? We are the heart of the French history, French industrial history, the invention of the turbo engines, our race to the space. I mean, there were many... We always had visionary people at Renault, inventors. We had Schweitzer, we had Mr. Besse, and even Carlos Ghosn, in some way, was a visionary of sorts. And so we have reached a turning point.
What's going to happen next? Is, I mean, the U.S. have raised trade barriers. Should Europe do the same? Is that the right thing? Should we, on the contrary, forge an Alliance with the Chinese? Because back then, we were concerned about the Japanese threat. It never materialized, but now it's the Chinese threat, which is 10 times as big, and so we'll have to wake up, and Europe doesn't seem to wake up at all.
So frankly, I don't know how many questions there were. You've gone from the past of Renault to the future. So I can tell you one thing is that we don't lack visionary people, I can assure you. All the teams here, Luca, heading them, everyone is about innovation. I told you that in my introduction, the innovation is very much part of the DNA of the group. You were nice enough to say that we were in, we are an important element in France. I said that we were in, in, very much integral to France. We're not going to change, and innovation is very much the at the heart of Renault. But maybe Luca can develop this, can go a little further with international competition and all that. I'm sure that many of you have questions about that.
What is the vision of Renault? Okay, so, let me answer you, try and answer your question. I, all the people that you mentioned and you said were visionary, actually, they are visionary. They were visionary, but you only realize it afterwards. So maybe what we're doing, in five or 10 years, people will say we were visionary. I think what I can say is that we, you know, we—maybe we didn't have a choice as well. We were forced to think differently from before because we were trying to catch up. And I remember three or four years ago, with the team, we-
... we knew that we had to do things differently or we wouldn't survive. Now, for electric cars, so I think that, you know, EVs are certainly going to be dominant in the future of the automotive industry. I don't know what the percentage is going to be, so maybe today we are at 0% or 10%, but it certainly is going to grow. So this is a growth market, especially in those segments where Renault is very, very strong. Small vehicles, small cars, and commercial vehicles, for several, for different reasons. Renault was visionary to go into electric cars and with Zoe and Fluence and all of that many, many years ago, and then they hesitated.
It's not up to me to judge why, but we did take up the torch again, and we've made EVs in the segments where we are really competent and where we are expected to be. So, you know, I'm not gonna go into all the philosophical discussions about electric cars or no electric cars, but I believe that in these segments, Renault is going to play a leadership role, and that is our objective. On the other hand, I think it's pretty coherent with the declarations that we made two, three years ago, is that we've always played at two levels. With Dacia, with Horse, hybrid cars, democratizing hybrid cars and all of that, and with E-Tech, we've got something that's really very powerful. So we can play on both levels.
I think the Chinese carmakers are ahead of us in this field, but that doesn't mean that we have no chance. I think Europe's always been very open to competition. I've been around in the automotive industry long enough to have worked with Toyota five years ago. I was the product manager for Yaris, so I was in there, and my job was to develop Toyota in Europe, and I would say that Toyota is very much a European citizen. Clearly, they are clearly established in Europe, and then a Korean brand. So we have the Japanese carmakers that came in, then Korean carmakers that came in. So after three or four generations, they count for about 25% of the Chinese market, not 85% or 90%.
The same thing is going to be true of Chinese carmakers. We are just gonna have to put up with it. These are the things that we repeat to ourselves every day. We tell ourselves every day that our references have changed. We used to have, as references, traditional European carmakers. And, you know, Chinese carmakers have caught up with us, practically, all of them. You know, the Japanese and Korean carmakers have certainly caught up with us, and now we're looking at Chinese carmakers. We're looking to see how they're managing, what they're doing. It's going to be a very, very tough job. But I think we've got the skills, we've got the desire to innovate that we need in this kind of competition. And in fact, I think competition is good. It boosts you.
It boosts you to be better every day, and the tougher it is, the more motivated you are. And I can assure you that in this group, we have decided to fight to the last man.
Okay, I'm gonna give question number four, the floor, please. And then six. Go ahead.
Yes. Hello, everyone. I got into the Régie Renault at 1969, and I have a few shares that were given to, allocated to me during my brilliant career. So I, I've got about, about 20, not millions. So I want to say something about the question of... So to begin with, I'd like to say something, first of all, because I really appreciate the work that the company has achieved.
So the work done by the leadership team, of course, but, but the work done by every employee from the smallest to the biggest. And I believe that our chairman is 70 years old, and he certainly should be retiring. And most employees of the company are pushed out before they turn 70, even the best of them. So I would like to invite the chairman to retire, and since he is very much attached to the future of the company, I would suggest that he should continue his term as a volunteer, and I suggest that I can assist him, so I can be his domestic servant as well as his car driver without any salary. So that would be for the chairman. But I'm not... This is not about you, Mr. Senard, it's about the function.
But I certainly believe that you are extremely respectable, and I think you have all my sympathy. Let's go on to the CEO now.
Now, as far as the leadership is concerned, we started at the bottom, but we seem to be going the same way as Carlos Tavares. And if I go back in time, because, you know, I have seen, I've attended AGMs with Carlos Ghosn, where you had the small shareholders that voted against the increase of his salary because his remuneration was absolutely crazy, far too high.
If I take the example of the famous directors of this company, Pierre Lefaucheux and Pierre Dreyfus, they both had salaries that were those of a highly placed person, director in the company, with, of course, a flat and a car. But nothing like the kind of salaries that we are being asked to give all of you today. So there again, this is not about the people. I'm just talking about the salary for this function. I think that your wages are scandalous because the results obtained were results that were obtained by the whole of the company. Because if we continue to increase the wages, then that should be applied to the employees, all the employees of the company.
Otherwise, just take the same kind of increases or raises that are given to the other employees, just a few percentage per year. Thank you very much.
Yes, thank you, sir. [Foreign language]
Thank you so much for all your care and attention for me. You know, I don't fix my own salary, you know, it's the board that fixed, fix it. So you suggest that it should be... It's very nice of you to suggest that it should be increased every year. I could suggest that to the board, because I've had the same salary for the last six years. It hasn't moved at all. As far as my age is concerned, of course, I'm as old as I am, but I get the feeling that I've still got a little bit of energy left.
It's always funny, you know, because you named me, appointed me director, and you renewed my term, so I don't see why I shouldn't carry my term through to the end, because otherwise, I think I would be, I would be, disrespecting your vote. But it's very nice of you anyway. Now, as far as Luca is concerned, let me be very clear. I am one of those, French, company leaders that spent my life saying that we should have moderate salaries, but we have to have recognition. Recognition is for everyone, and I do believe sincerely that what is happening in the company today, and the discussions that you have in terms of wages, are quite, remarkable in terms of parity. Maybe we don't talk about that so much.
But, you know, this year, for example, all, all the work that we've done on employee participation and all of that is quite remarkable. I think everyone should be satisfied. Of course, nothing is perfect, but very frankly, I've really looked at all this with a great with a lot of attention, and this is a subject that really concerns me. So I think that this is quite exemplary. Now, as far and as far as Luca is concerned, I suggest that you should recognize we should recognize your very, very positive comment on what he's done so far. But I do believe that it needs it should be not just recognized, but also rewarded. And as far as the salaries are concerned, I consider that it is very reasonable indeed.
It is at the mean, barely, of what is happening in the whole of the industry, and whether you can see it or not, we are not the only ones in the world. I suggest that if you combine moderation and intelligence, that is to say, let us bring 80% of this situation, of this, remuneration, which is variable, and it's, it's, it is conditioned on so many criteria, and you recognize that, and I'd like to congratulate you on that. So use that intelligence, and being moderate, in being moderate, I believe that we have hit on the right median, medium. I believe not only does Luca deserve what we propose today, but I do believe that for the whole of the industry, it's going to be exemplary at this level.
So that's what I wanted to say, and I can assure you that I will obviously follow whatever proposal you make. Thank you very much. So I'm afraid that you might have to put up with me for another two years if I'm still alive, if I remain alive. But... Seeing, you know, what great shape you're in, Mr., my dear, you seem, seems like you're quite exemplary. Question number six, please.
Bonjour. Uh,
Yes, hello. There's a criteria for variable share. I know a whole category of people, including in my family, who make tens of millions EUR per month because they made a startup, and they sold it after a few years. And I'm absolutely convinced that Luca de Meo could do exactly the same thing, and I'm sure that he could set up his own company and make hundreds of millions euros. So I don't want to compare him with that. I want to compare the variable part with Tesla and Volkswagen. So Tesla, the guy, Elon Musk, has no salary. He is paid in shares, but these are new shares that are created, so he's actually diluting the shareholding of his company.
So he's made several billion when the capitalization of the company went up, and that obviously brought a lot of criticisms, but he's not had got any money for the last three years because the share hasn't, the shares haven't moved. So that was the first criterion on the value of the company, the stock market's capitalization. Now, Volkswagen, it's complicated. There are many criteria, but there's one I'd like to suggest, which concerns productivity, which is measured since the beginning of 2000, and that is the added value per year and per employee. It is a productivity indicator, and just to give you a few references, this added value, some years has gone over EUR 100,000 per year and per employee. And so...
At the time, Volkswagen used to pay about EUR 70,000 to its employees at the time, and they continued to pay the same. So in Renault, the added value per year and per employee was about EUR 60,000-EUR 70,000 per year, which means that if you are paying EUR 70,000 per year to your employees, it's more uncomplicated. So what I would suggest is to have variable shares of remuneration on productivity, not necessarily the ones that Volkswagen has had, but you've already talked about one criterion, which is the number of hours to assemble a vehicle. You talked about nine hours because that's, that was a reference with Tesla, but you didn't tell us recently what the criteria—where that criterion stands right now. And so I would prefer value added per...
by every hour worked, per hour worked. So when you're talking about productivity, after all, if an employee is paid, then if productivity goes up, then you can increase the cost of that hour of work. So that would be an indicator that would align the employees' salaries on the salaries of managers.
Yes, thank you very much. I'm sure that we will note it. Just one comment that I could make here is that criteria concerning productivity are not very easy to determine always, especially because it depends very much on the geography, where you are, et cetera. And in any case, the criteria that are used here are the result of the increase in productivity. The criteria that we are talking about, if they are achieved, it will mean that productivity has gone up considerably.
So I assure you that our, you must understand that it's not as easy as that to mention, to measure. And once again, without the improvement in productivity in all of the sites of the group, we would not be here talking to you about the results that we chalked up last year.
So thank you. There's one question. If our relationship with China is made harder, what do we do to ensure that our China dependency doesn't lead us down the same road as our dependency on Russia?
Okay, I'll give the question to Luca, but you must understand that it's very different because the question of Russia is a situation where we were producing in that country, but the geopolitical stress meant that we had to shut down our production there, and it was very difficult indeed.
I think at that point, we took a very, very brave decision, probably the most... the bravest one we could take at the time. In the case of China, we today, apart from the Spring, do not produce vehicles massively in China. So the situation is very different because as soon as China is concerned, we depend on China just like any other part of the automotive industry in the world. Because over the last 25 years, China has built a very strong strategy. We can't really blame them for it because they have full control over the materials that are necessary to build the batteries that are needed for electric vehicles.
And this is a field where they were able to do vertical integration to an extraordinary extent and put the right control, not only on the mines that are necessary for this, but also in the processing of the ore that comes out of these mines, the refining of it. So for very many years to come, we are still going to be dependent on China because in point of fact, they are still the providers of these substances worldwide. But, Luca, maybe you can talk about the measures that we've taken recently to try and create a sort of independence as quickly as possible, or at least a sort of neutrality that would make it possible for us-...
To no longer be subject to or be subjected to any geopolitical strains that come up. So you can tell us about the work we've done with friendly countries like Morocco, but also with other European countries.
We're going to continue to do that, of course. We have partnerships, for example, for batteries with Korean groups, that from that point of view, I would say are pretty pure compared to the Chinese question. So it's more secure. Sorry, secure. And so, but, you know, that means we're not in so much danger today. I can assure you, we are doing all we can, and at the level of the board, we are all... We always pay attention to the fact that we should make, take all of the right decisions to ensure that the context that we are in today should not, in the future, become a risk for the group. So the context is there. The group is going to do all it can, and it's going to take us some time. You may remember that Fernand [Raynaud] said that things in rural France take time. So the same is true here. Luca, what would you say?
Yes, of course. Certainly, I don't want things to get tight or stressed out because we need open markets. We need parts to circulate widely. We need all substances and products to circulate widely all over the world.
So I do not think that uncoupling China from the rest of the world is going to be positive for industry. Not at all. We can de-risk, of course, as much as we can, but we can't cut ourselves off from China. It's impossible, especially, especially in certain fields where we can't do without China, especially for the whole of the value chain of the EV, as Jean-Dominique said. We're looking for collaboration with Chinese companies, and we are not—Maybe it's a question of luck, but we're not as exposed to the Chinese market. At least, we haven't been over the recent history of Renault. So we decided to go into China. The strategy was not... The strategy was not successful, and I think that Renault managed the complicated situation that came up pretty well.
We have a good relationship with certain players there, and technically, we really don't have that much exposure to China. You have OEMs that have half of their business or more there. That's not our case. We would like to develop more business there. Hopefully, if you know, as long as the situation stays calm. Yes. Please do be aware that these are all things that we keep in mind and that we talk about very regularly.
Okay, maybe we can take question number 3 over there.
Yes, hello. Thank you for your presentation. I have a question that concerns Renault Trucks.
Because you haven't really talked about it, and that's quite normal because there was so much to say, but I do want to know whether in the reflection that you're carrying out, keeping in mind that the electric solution is not the right one for this kind of vehicle, we are—I think people are looking more at hydrogen. Are you looking at this as well? Are you thinking about this? Well, you know, I don't want to hurry you in any way, but we sold that division about 20 years ago, so really, we don't have anything to do with them anymore. But that doesn't mean we're not thinking about hydrogen.
Yes, we are thinking of commercial vehicles with hydrogen.
And Luca and I, as well as the rest of the team, we do believe that commercial vehicles are going to change significantly over the 10 or 15 years to come, and we have to be able to produce green hydrogen at a proper cost, which is not yet feasible.
Okay, thank you so much. Maybe question number two. Yes, hello. So in quite a recent past, there was a crisis in semiconductors, and obviously, that had a specific impact on the automotive sector. So how do you plan to secure the supply of raw materials, especially those that are linked to EVs?
Well, yes, actually, this kind of crisis, you know, with the semiconductors, these are crises that teach you so much.
So we've been talking, we've been working on this with François Provost, with Gilles, and all of that, because at the time, none of the OEMs saw this happening. Nobody had foreseen that at all. Because all of the value chain of these semiconductors were in the hands of our tier one suppliers, Bosch, Valeo, et cetera. So when it actually impinged on us, we had no choice, we had to pay. So I think we probably paid no more than the others because every year, our results improved, even during that, those crises.
But based on that, we worked extremely hard from the technical point of view, to try and understand, to standardize certain parts, to try and ensure that we no longer had to use these very specific Renault parts that were, that were very difficult to, to, source and all of that. And another thing we've done is that we signed a deal with Qualcomm which makes chips and semiconductors, which is an American company. And in that contract, they are committed to supply us with, at a certain price, a certain quantity, and at the best level of technology, all the semiconductors we need. So this is not a perfect situation, but we've really, really turned the situation around. So this was such a tough situation, you know, what happened about a couple of years ago.
I don't think it's gonna happen again. But the problem is, it's not just us, it's the fact is that the semiconductor industry is completely concentrated. There's 4 or 5 different sectors, and for each of these sectors, as you have the memory, you have chipsets, you have all of that, the world has actually let companies completely concentrate. So in each of these segments, two or three companies hold 80% of the business. So you will have companies like TSMC in Taiwan, that produce 70% of that green board on which the printed circuits are made. And this is something that, obviously, you know, the Americans are looking at. There are European projects as well to try and put production capacities into Europe. But it's a huge, huge subject. But of course, we can do all we can.
We can use the levers we have and that we can act on. But I think that if Armageddon were to happen, we'll all have problems. You know, Renault is not gonna be the only one. The whole planet will have problems. But I think certainly we are in a much better situation today than we were two, three years ago. Yes, okay, and that links back to the preceding question as well, on the sovereignty of the Renault Group in this field. We've certainly learned a lot. Yes, I'll take question number one.
Two short questions. First of all, what happened with your agreements with Mercedes after the Smart? And second, what about Renault Samsung? What happened to that? We never hear about that anymore.
Well, as far as Mercedes is concerned, we are still producing the Kangoo.
They decided unilaterally to pull out of the Revoz plant, and to delegate the production of those, their cars to Geely in China. This was their decision. So over the last two or three years, in fact, since I arrived, I think, we tried to find a solution for the future of Revoz. So right now, it's working, not at full capacity, but it's working. We decided to produce the end-of-life cycle earlier Twingo, and we are also going to see whether or not we can put the new Twingo there. As far as the Kangoo is concerned, we, you know, we're moving forward. We're making Citan for Mercedes, that's doing pretty well, et cetera. Now, for Renault Samsung, there are two points.
First of all, we no longer use the Samsung brand because it was an agreement that had been signed, but the deadline has been reached. Then, we called the company Renault Korea. We renamed it. So it's Renault's logo that figures on the cars and on the dealerships, and we are preparing the launch of a car that we prepared on a platform that Geely gave us, on which we're going to develop a second car that will be on the roads by 2025, 2026. So we have two D segment SUVs, which will be sold in Korea with the Renault brand, and worldwide also with the Renault brand. So this will be one part of the range that we have set up of our lineup to reconquer the world under the Renault badge.
You know, we mentioned this during the board meeting this morning. Our collaboration with Geely in Korea is something that is pretty amazing. The local teams are highly motivated. The collaboration is going very, very well. But of course, it came, you know, in 2021, when we were looking at Korea, we didn't have any solution for Korea after Arkana, and the plant was at 20% or 30% of capacity and no more. So that meant that if we had to close the plant, it would have meant an impairment of about EUR 2 billion and the restructuring costs of another EUR 1 billion. So I can assure you that the agreement that we signed with Geely certainly helped us to not drown.
In terms of impact, it would have been the same hit as we took in Russia. Right now, we have a future, we've got new ideas for new cars, so we're very happy with what is happening in Korea. I was in Korea seven or eight months ago, and I saw that the teams were so motivated, extremely motivated.
Yes, you're right. I'm going to be there in a month's time, and it's true that it's pretty fantastic what's happening. And Luca, you mentioned the hubs that we've created in the world, and it's very promising. It's a bit like some of the situations that Renault had, you know, which earlier for Renault, which were, you know, were in a trough situation, but now we are coming back up.
So I know that there are still questions from this room, but I have a question from the chat that I'd like to answer. Renault has showed that it will commit to France. Do you will you still agree with Mr. Macron and the French government after 2025?
My answer to that is yes. I think that we've really, really bet on France, and I would say that Luca is even more motivated than we are, so that Renault does not lose its anchor, deep anchor and roots in France. So right now, you can see that in our country we are exemplary. You know, we are, you know, all these investments we've made are certainly not going to be made just for two years.
We've really committed in the long term to France, and France is going to remain at the heart of Renault. We have a question here in the room. I'm sorry, I hadn't seen you. We'll take number six, and then we'll take maybe one more very quickly.
Yes. Hello. I'm an individual shareholder. I have two questions. My first one concerns Software République. Could you tell us where we stand with that? Have we got-- We've got new players in there. And the second one concerns talents, especially we have more and more software, more and more AI. How do you manage skills, especially with the international competition, especially with the GAFA companies?
Yes, these are very interesting questions.
Software République is something that we created, and we brought really a whole constellation around us because we don't want to be a solar system with Renault at the center. And after two, three years of work, we found quite an interesting balance, and we managed to federate the teams of companies that are pretty legendary, you know, Thales, STMicroelectronics, Orange, Dassault Systèmes. These are all the very cream of French industry. There's one thing that's new, which is as JCDecaux has also joined the Software République. There are already two, three projects that are out there. The charger that's produced in France, for example, V2G, so it's, you know, the chargers that we sell with our Scenic, with our Renault 5.
We're very competitive in terms of costs, and there's this function that's really pretty new because we decided to be the first to put V2G into our cars, you know, vehicle to grid. And of course, this is just going to carry on, but I don't have the time to go into that in more detail. So anyway, that's carrying on. That's continuing. This year, we're going to be at VivaTech again with a concept that's pretty interesting. Because we're using the FlexEVan to show innovations that are linked to the possibility of giving medical services where no clinics or dispensaries exist, and we built that on the Scenic concept. There were 14 innovations, world firsts, and of these... And of these 14, seven of these are going to be produced, mass-produced. So with my colleagues, the other CEOs of the other companies, it's so rewarding.
It's so amazing. But this is about business. This is not just about chatting, just to meet. We are working hard, and you'll see that if you look at what's happening in VivaTech. These are concrete projects, and I really love this because I've tried to do things like this in Germany, in Italy, in Spain, but there is nothing that is comparable to Software République in terms of innovation, in terms of different teams coming together. We are very proud of it.
Okay, so time is moving on, and we have a lot of resolutions to vote on, so I don't want to hurry this up too much, but we're going to take one last question. Number two, if you don't mind.
Yes, I'm a Renault Group employee.
I am so happy that my presence here brings the mean age down so much. So thank you so much for the shareholding, the share ownership projects.
Thank you so much. I have a bit of a worry on the temptation we might have for battery to cut costs for batteries and chassis. We're talking about giga casting and gluing, which always fall to pieces when you get to after-sales service. So I really want to ensure that this is something that the top management does not forget, and that you are not going to sell out our durability, the durability of our products, just to cut costs. So I don't know whether, Gilles, you would like to say something about this, but I think we are very much aware of the subject.
So as far as batteries are concerned, you all know that the durability of batteries seems to be much better than everybody thought it was going to be at the beginning. And we're making huge efforts, as you've seen on the Scenic, I think, where we have 24%-25% of recycled materials used. So Renault is really at the cutting edge of all of this, and we've done a lot of work. On this, I remember when I arrived, I asked the quality director to put three cars, one Renault and two competition cars in a furnace to look at aging. And based on that, we redid all of our criteria, because actually our car just folded up like a banana compared to the others.
That, I can assure you, is no longer the case for the new generation cars of Renault. We are working on it, because we want to give our customers value. Gilles, would you say something?
Yes, I'll give you two elements to answer your question. First of all, the durability of our vehicles. We have an approach that we've been using with Thierry for the last three years for the durability of our vehicles. I'm sure maybe you know about it. There are 200 components that we look at one by one, and all Renaulution cars will have this project. And in fact, you know, for the R5, for Scenic, durability is much better, and we've really made a huge amount of progress. And the second element is, concerns repairability. You're right. So far, it was pretty simple.
You would pick up the cell of the battery, put the cell in the module, and the module in a box, and then you put the casing in the car. To drive down costs, we no longer do this. We're going to do cell-to-pack or cell-to-chassis, which means that the modules are directly in the pack box. So we're working on this. We've already chosen certain orientations to continue to facilitate durability, but there is an offset between the original cost and repairability. The original, the cost of origin is very important for our car, you know, for our buyers. So we are very much keeping an eye on this.
So, you know, I'd like to add something, and in fact, your question makes it possible for me to do it.
We never talk about these things because you, you talk about it, you do it, but you don't talk about it, and that's quality. The work that that Renault has done on quality over the last four years is absolutely remarkable. We divided the number of defects by four, and we have achieved a level of quality that we have never seen in Renault, at least since we started measuring quality. And we are at the level of the very best of our competitors in Europe, and this is something that you can see. If you look at the surveys in the network, there is, you know, public data out there.
You can see the changes that Renault has made, and I can confirm that one of the most miraculous things that has happened in this company over the last four years, and that I'm most proud of, is the capacity that we have shown to turn ourselves around and to correct something that is something that's been dogging Renault from the very beginning. Today, our products are high quality. We are at the level of the best in the market. Thank you very much for your question. I think your questions were very relevant, so we always have this very rewarding discussion. I'm very happy about it.
This puts an end to the Q&A session, and the time has come for us to vote on the resolution. I'll give the floor to Quitterie, whose hard job is to give us a brief summary of the 28 resolutions we'll be voting on. Quitterie, it's all yours.
[Foreign language]
Thank you, Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, the meeting is asked to consider 28 resolutions, including 20 ordinary resolutions and 8 extraordinary resolutions. Before presenting each of the resolutions and presenting, I would like to tell you that we have 213,069,822 shares with voting rights for the ordinary part, and accounting for 73.02% of all shares with voting rights, both for the ordinary and extraordinary part. The quorum required for the ordinary and extraordinary meetings has been met. Let's take a look at the video presentation of the voting box operating procedures. Hello, this box is for personal use only. The number of votes that you have is actually recorded in the box, and it shows up on the screen.
All you have to press is the green, the yellow, or the red button. Green means yes, for. Yellow means abstention, and the red key means against, no. And after each of the resolutions, once you enter your vote, you... What happens is, when we announce a resolution, say, "Please vote now," and on the screen, you'll have a countdown of the number of seconds left for you to vote. Once that comes to an end, we will say that the vote is closed, and then you will not be able to vote any longer, and the outcome will be on the screen, will be displayed on the screen a few moments afterwards.
One final point, please make sure you switch off your cell phones during the vote, and please return these voting boxes after you leave the room. Right. If no one needs any additional explanations, let's start with the ordinary resolutions. The first one is the approval of the company's annual financial statements with a profit of EUR 925,962,243.82. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
... Voting is closed and the resolution was carried. Resolution number 2 is to approve the consolidated financial statements for the year 2023, showing a profit of EUR 2,234 million and some. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was carried as well. Number three, appropriation of net income for the year ended twenty, the year 2023, setting the dividend. You're asked to approve a dividend of 1.85 EUR per share, for each share with a right to the dividend. The total amount is EUR 537,235,863.40. The balance will be allocated to retained earnings, bringing the total to EUR 10,326,040,078.82. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution is adopted. Number 4, shareholders are asked to approve the statutory auditor's report on the factors used to determine the remuneration of redeemable shares. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed.
[Foreign language]
The resolution is carried.
[Foreign language]
Fifth resolution: to approve the information given in the related to related party agreements entered into prior years and which remain in force in 2023, as the auditor's report stated. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution is carried as well.
[Foreign language]
Resolution number 6 is to approve the framework agreement and its rider signed between the company and Nissan, setting out the principles for the organization of the partnership between Renault and Nissan. Nissan is not taking part in this vote.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was adopted.
[Foreign language]
Number 7: to approve the related party agreement entitled New Alliance Agreement, and its addendum signed between the company and Nissan, setting out the new governance rules for the Alliance and the capital relationship between Renault and Nissan. Nissan, again, is not taking part in this vote. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was carried.
[Foreign language]
Number eight: to approve the related party agreement entitled Ampere Investment Agreement between the company and Nissan, defining the terms and conditions of Nissan's investment in Ampere. Nissan is not taking part in this vote. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was adopted.
[Foreign language]
Number 9: to approve the related party agreement entitled Notice of Sale of Nissan Shares, entered into between the company and Nissan, defining the terms and conditions of the sale of Nissan shares by Renault in connection with Nissan's repurchase of its own shares in December 2023. Nissan is not taking part in this vote. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was adopted.
[Foreign language]
10 is to approve the related party agreement entitled Deed of Termination of the Governance Agreement, entered into between the company and the French state, formalizing the termination of the governance agreement entered into in 2016, and restricting the French state's free exercise of voting rights on certain decisions submitted to the annual general meeting. The French government, of course, not taking part. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was carried.
And-
Number 11 is to appoint Mazars as statutory auditors responsible for certifying sustainability information for a period of 2 financial years. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution is carried as well. Number 12 is to appoint KPMG as statutory auditor responsible for certifying sustainability information for a period of two financial years. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Vote, resolution was adopted. Number 13 is to approve the information relating to the compensation paid during or awarded in respect of the year 2023 to all corporate officers. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was adopted. Number 14 is to approve the compensation paid to Jean-Dominique Senard, Chairman of the Board of Directors, during or in respect of the year 2023. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was adopted. Number 15 is to approve the compensation paid to Luca de Meo, Chief Executive Officer, during or in respect of the year 2023. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was carried. 16 is to approve the compensation policy for the chairman of the board of directors for the year 2024. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was adopted.
[Foreign language]
17 is to approve the remuneration policy for the CEO for the year 2024. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was adopted.
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Number 18 is to approve the directors' compensation policy for the year 2024. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was adopted.
[Foreign language]
Number 19 is to authorize the board of directors to buy and sell shares in the company for a maximum period of 18 months, up to a limit of 10% of the share capital. This is the authorization enabling the company to implement its share buyback program. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was adopted.
[Foreign language]
Let's move on to the resolution submitted to the extraordinary general meeting. Number 20 is to authorize the board of directors to reduce the company's capital by canceling shares for a maximum period of 18 months and up to a limit of 18% of the share capital. This resolution is related to the previous one on the share buyback program. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was adopted.
[Foreign language]
Number 21 is to authorize the board to increase share capital by capitalizing reserves, profits, or additional paid-in capital. Let me draw your attention to the fact that this resolution is subject to the quorum and majority requirements applicable to ordinary shareholders meetings. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was carried as well.
[Foreign language]
Number 22 is to authorize the board of directors for a period of 26 months to increase the company's capital with preemptive subscription rights for existing shareholders. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was adopted.
[Foreign language]
Number 23 is to authorize the board of directors for a period of 26 months to increase the company's capital without shareholders' preferential subscription rights and with an optional priority subscription period through public offerings other than private placements. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was adopted. Number 24 is to authorize the board of directors for a period of 26 months to increase the company's capital without shareholders' preferential subscription rights being maintained through private placements with a limited circle of investors or qualified investors. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was adopted. Number 25 is to delegate to the board of directors for a period of 26 months, the necessary powers to increase the share capital in consideration for contributions in kind that may be granted to the company. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed. Number 26 is to authorize the board of directors for a period of 26 months to carry out capital increases reserved for group employees who are members of a company savings plan without shareholders' preferential subscription rights. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was adopted. Number 27 is to authorize the board of directors for a period of 38 months to award bonus shares, free shares, to group employees and corporate officers. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was adopted. Finally, the 28 resolution is to grant the necessary powers to carry out the legal formalities required at the close of this meeting. Please vote now.
[Foreign language]
Voting is closed, and the resolution was carried. All the resolutions were put to the vote. Detailed voting results will be posted on the company's website. I give the floor back to our Chairman to close this annual general meeting.
Thank you so much, Quitterie. It's always a very intense exercise. I would like to thank all shareholders for their votes. These resolutions were massively approved. I would like to thank you for coming here. It really is heartwarming to see you all in this room, and I would also like to thank you for your votes. Since there's nothing else on the agenda, this brings this AGM to an end. Thank you all.