The prototype was unveiled at the “Mondial de l’Automobile”. The future C5 Aircross SUV will, as planned, be produced in Rennes from 2025. But to ensure the sustainability of the Breton site, the unions are requesting the short-term announcement of another vehicle for 2030.
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This is one of the new features of the 2024 Paris Motor Show. The future “Citroën C5 Aircross” was presented on October 14 in Paris.
Citroën’s new family SUV will succeed its older brother in 2025, which was put on the market in 2018, and like it will be manufactured on the Rennes “La Janais” site.
The prototype, unveiled in Paris, is a concept “90% close to the production model”, indicated the manufacturer.
1m 66 high and 4m 65 long, 15 cm more than the previous one, it will benefit from a multi-energy version, thermal, hybrid and 100% electric, “thus able to adapt to the needs and uses of ‘a multiple clientele in this market territory’.
Also read: Automotive, will the Stellantis group close factories?
If the vehicle unveiled in Paris was manufactured in a pilot workshop in Sochaux, production of the future SUV should therefore begin, perhaps in spring 2025, on the Breton lines of La Janais for marketing probably in the fall.
For Breton employees, this is not a surprise. The manufacturer had announced 160 million euros of investments in 2023 with new workshops, for the production of electric batteries for example.
“But if the arrival of the future “C5 Aircross” is good news since it ensures work until 2030, the problem remains,” puts Laurent Valy of the CFDT, the majority union, into perspective.
“Producing a single vehicle is not enough. In Rennes, production of the 5008 is stopping these days, the first generation “C5 Aircross” is at the end of its life, so we will end up with its successor as a single product. And if we produce quality, there is one factor that we cannot control, and that is the reception of the public.”
If the future vehicle does not find its customers, we may find ourselves in the middle term with our beaks in water. We must therefore anticipate. With an additional vehicle announcement in 2025/2026 for a release in 2029 when the new C5 Aircross will begin to decline. But for now, it’s not in the cards.
Laurent Valy
CFDT Secretary of the CSE Stellantis Rennes la Janais
And the CDFT also calls for hiring. In Rennes, “the site employs 1,830 permanent workers and 227 temporary workers,” indicates the union. “But 350 employees are engaged in a voluntary departure plan, and no longer necessarily active. The average age is 52 years. With this new vehicle, it is absolutely necessary to rejuvenate the workforce.”
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