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Drones? Europe’s Automakers Are Taking Orders.

French car company Renault seeks a foothold in rearmament.

By early 2027, the first models of the “Chorus” will be rolling off assembly lines at the French car manufacturer Renault. It’s not a new emissions-free vehicle at an appealing price point—the elusive savior of Europe’s once confident automobile sector. Rather, the Chorus is the French brand’s first foray into the burgeoning market of military drones. Designed with weapons contractor Turgis Gaillard, the Chorus drone will be put together across two of the carmaker’s industrial sites. Engines manufactured at Renault’s Cléon facilities near Rouen will get final assembly at the group’s factory in Le Mans, a site usually known for its chassis frames.

The final product, according to the manufacturers’ magazine L’Usine Nouvelle, is an ordnance with dual offensive and reconnaissance capabilities. Lauded in industry circles as a reply to Iran’s Shahed drones or compared to Ukraine’s Flamingo cruise missiles, the Chorus will purportedly be capable of carrying a 500-kilogram payload with an estimated range of 3,000 kilometers (slightly over 1,864 miles), at a unit price of €120,000.

Renault management denies that drone production could ever become a pillar of business strategy. The group “does not aim to become a major actor in the defense sector,” it said in a press release this winter, after its drone partnership was approved by employee representatives. For now, the scale of its agreement appears minimal: Renault is said to be broaching a 10-year pact with the French state valued at €1 billion. (In 2025, the group reported just shy of €58 billion in worldwide revenue.) For now, monthly output is expected to reach 600 Chorus drones when production hits full speed over the next year, compared to the many thousands of engines or car frames manufactured at the two sites in question.

Yet these small steps are part of French President Emmanuel Macron’s calls to bring France to a “war economy” footing. Tony Fortin, of the Lyon-based NGO L’Observatoire de l’Armement, warns that Renault’s entry into the drone market has it starting down a familiar path. Denouncing “an extension of the military into civilian industry,” Fortin said that Renault’s deal “normalizes the notion that weapons are a market like any other.”

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