Renault has announced plans to cut 15,000 jobs globally as it slashes production targets in response to a “major crisis” in the car industry.

The car maker said on Friday that 4,600 jobs would go in France with the rest elsewhere, without giving further details.

It comes a day after Nissan, which is in an alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi, announced thousands of job cuts.

Renault said in a statement: “The difficulties encountered by the group, the major crisis facing the automotive industry and the urgency of the ecological transition are all imperatives that are driving the company to accelerate its transformation.”

The French company will cut production capacity from 4 million to 3.3 million vehicles by 2024. Sales plunged 25 per cent in the first quarter of the year amid a host of problems facing the industry, including falling demand in China, a transition to electric vehicles and the coronavirus pandemic.

Renault, which is partly state-owned, is in talks with the French government over a €5bn loan.

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