Renault, the victim of an industrial espionage attempt

The French manufacturer doesn’t want its plans to develop electric vehicles to be endangered.

Renault fears its development project of electric vehicles is endangered, after an industrial espionage attempt. The French manufacturer has recently fired three executives for fear of leaking information about its programs to develop new electric models.

Caroline De Gezelle, Renault’s spokesman, said that on January 3 three executives were suspended, without receiving remuneration for the current month. Sources quoted by Agence France Presse said that one of the executives was fired directly involved in the development of electric propulsion technology. It seems that this employee was accused of espionage and even caught red-handed.

Sources quoted by AFP said: “Renault is a victim in this story. The group is a bit worried about its electric vehicle program – it hopes that its leadership in this technology won’t be threatened.”

The spokesman said the investigation was started by an ethics alert in August, but declined to provide information about the person involved in the spying scandal. An alarm is synonymous with the ethics of reporting an employee who exhibits a behavior that may harm the interests of the company: uninvolvement, refusing to develop a project or leakage of information.

Renault is currently extremely dedicated to electric vehicles and plans to invest 4 billion in projects of this type. This year, Renault is preparing to launch models Fluence ZE, Twizy ZE and Kangoo ZE, and plans to reach a figure of 200,000 electirc units per year in the period 2015-2016.

Source: Automotive news