The whole family. The faces of the French automotive industry were all there, Tuesday afternoon in Bercy, for the signing of the new strategic contract of the automotive industry, ratified by no less than three ministers – Bruno Mayor, Elisabeth Borne and Nicolas Hulot. Rarely, even Carlos Ghosn and Carlos Tavares, the bosses of PSA and Renault, made the effort to be both present for the photo.
It must be said that the signed text, which formulates a number of specific commitments, is the result of two months of negotiations between the main players in the sector and the public authorities. The new contract covers the period 2018-2022, and aims to put on track an ecosystem that has regained color. Review of the main points.
Take off the electric car
This is the heart of the document. The industry has committed to five times the sales of electric vehicles in five years, that is to say to go from 31,000 in 2017 to 150,000 vehicles sold in 2022. All to move the fleet of lithium-ion cars to 600,000 machines, to which should be added 400,000 plug-in hybrids. While industrialists claim for some months an acceleration of the deployment of the network of recharge, the State promised in exchange 100,000 terminals accessible to the public in the Hexagon in 2022 – to obtain a ratio of ten cars per terminal. On January 1st, the meter was barely above the 22,000 markers.
Thus, the “right to the terminal” should evolve in condominiums by the end of 2019, the costs of connection to the electricity network should be lowered, and motorists should be able to request the installation of a terminal at a specific location s’ they are quite numerous.
Finally, Bercy has promised to maintain a “significant level” bonus for electric vehicles (currently € 6,000), and to give it “visibility” until 2022 by the end of the year.
Test large-scale autonomous vehicles
Supported by the State, the sector wants to multiply the tests of autonomous driving, from the robotaxi to the private car by way of shuttles. A € 40 million call for projects led by ADEME will be launched in June, and some data collected will be shared.
“We will put a step further collaboration between major groups, with a consortium involving PSA, Renault, Valeo, SNCF, Transdev, RATP, Keolis, Navya or Easymile, underlines Luc Chatel, president of the Auto Platform. In total, the joint pot for these tests should represent about 200 million euros.
Improve the network of equipment manufacturers
In order to grow the sector’s “potential SMEs”, bpifrance will create an accelerator this year which will host 180 companies in three promotions. The Future Motor Fund (FAA) will be extended , with an envelope of 135 million euros equally contributed by PSA, Renault and the State. The two manufacturers, who wanted to recover the unused amounts of the FAA, have finally changed.
Manage the employment issue
With the fall in diesel sales and the advent of electronics and software in the automotive industry, the HR challenge is becoming considerable in the sector: on the one hand, companies are struggling to recruit the required skills, on the other hand forced to convert many employees whose jobs die out. The industry intends to increase by 50% the recourse apprenticeship and sandwich courses, and set up a developed system of continuous training at local level.
Take an option on the technologies of the future
The ecosystem has finally said it wants to work together on hydrogen and a solid fourth generation battery. Bercy claims to have injected 650 million euros of public money to support automotive R & D, and claims to want to maintain this pace. Even accelerate it.