Renault Germany temporarily stops taking EV orders

Renault is ceasing the taking of orders for EVs in Germany starting this Saturday, March 26. The last orders it took were on Friday, March 25. This is because waiting times have skyrocketed lately, reaching untenable levels.

The German government's environmental bonus being valid only until the end of the year also didn't help - as it's unclear what its situation will be next year, and deliveries had already slipped into 2023. So ordering your EV now, you'd get a price calculation based on the current bonus, but if it goes away (or gets reduced) in 2023, you'll end up having to pay an unexpectedly larger sum for the car upon delivery (since the bonus applies when the vehicle gets its first registration).

So the company is doing the only thing it can, for now. It won't take any more orders for a while. When it will start taking orders again isn't decided yet. This freeze affects all of its EVs, including the Zoe, the Twingo Electric, the new Megane E-Tech Electric, as well as the Transporter Master ZE.

The news first broke when an internal letter from Renault Germany to its dealers was leaked. In the meantime, the information was confirmed to electrive.net by Ralf Benecke, Board Member for Marketing at Renault Germany.

According to the letter, the company is "reacting to the current supplier situation". It doesn't go into any more detail than that, but the obvious assumption is that chips are missing (the chip crisis is still going strong, after all), and there may also be a shortage of wiring harnesses, as those usually come from Ukraine.

Source (in German)