Renault's Horse Develops Microcar Transmission to Boost Carbon-Neutral Mobility

Renault’s standalone powertrain division, Horse, claims to have developed a new transmission unit for urban-focused battery-electric microcars as a way of achieving carbon-neutral transport for cities.

Working with Portugal’s Center of Engineering and Product Development (CEiiA), the company unveils a developed and built in-house "reducer" transmission at its Aveiro production facility.

The units will be fitted to an L7e-class microcar made by CEiiA, and is a lightweight vehicle designed for new mobility services to accelerate carbon-neutrality in cities. This will be developed and tested by CEiiA in a preproduction series, with approval targeted during the first half of 2025.

CEiiA’s microcar follows previous micromobility projects, including Buddy in 2008 and the Toyota APM people mover (pictured) presented at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Full-scale production of the new transmission component could start as early as the second half of 2025, with as many as 20,000 units delivered from the Portugal plant as urban mobility solutions scale up. Plans are for integration of the gearbox into the light-vehicle design with performance testing by December 2025.

Patrice Haettel, CEO at Horse, says: “There is no single solution to solving the global challenges of decarbonization or urban mobility, and we see this technology as one of the many in-house products that help to answer these challenges.”