According to CNBC, this collaboration is expected to last 15 years and a subsidiary of the French energy company will start drilling at the town of Douai shortly.

Renault's plan is to extract hot water from a depth of around 4.000 meters, which the company will then use in order to meet the facility's energy requirements from 2025.

Company officials said that "once implemented, this geothermal technology would provide a power of nearly 40 MW continuously."

At the same time, during summer, when heating energy won't be needed any more, geothermal power can be used for producing green electricity.

Luca de Meo, Renault Group CEO, said that this is "one of the most ambitious decarbonization projects on a European industrial site."

As far as carbon neutrality is concerned, Renault hopes to achieve this goal in 2040 throughout Europe and by 2050 globally.

Regarding Renault's actual lineup of vehicles, Chief Financial Officer Thierry Pieton said that "in our view, and according to all the studies that we’ve got, there is no scenario where ICE and hybrid engines represent less than 40% of the market with a horizon of 2040."

This shows that despite the fact that multiple countries are looking to ban fossil-powered vehicles by 2035, the French manufacturer will continue to develop highly-efficient ICE and hybrid vehicles before the world will be fully ready for EVs.