France, land of industrialization of the electric vehicle? Christophe Gurtner, CEO of Forsee Power, is delighted with the speeches hammered in recent weeks by public authorities. His company, created in 2011, specializes in the design and manufacture of battery systems for light vehicles (2 or 3 wheels), and for heavy vehicles (especially buses).
And the factory he has launched two years ago near Poitiers (Vienne) is ready to ramp up. “Our installed capacity would allow us to equip 2,500 buses per year. We have room to load the factory! “Insists Christophe Gurtner.
Forsee Power, which includes French customers Heuliez and Alstom, the Portuguese Caetano, or the Irish Wrightbus, is growing rapidly: last year the company delivered 200 bus battery systems, and expects “not far from double this year”, says Christophe Gurtner. It employs 550 people in France, China and Poland, including a hundred recruited in 2019 – but still refuses to communicate its revenues (25 million euros in 2018 according to Infogreffe).
Energetic transition
The COVID-19 crisis forced it to close its factories, in China in January (150 employees), then in France in March (200 employees), but they have since reopened by applying sanitary measures. “It is a question of delivering the orders in progress”, explains Christophe Gurtner.
However, the manager is worried about the future. “On 2021 it is still unknown. While France is our first market, we are dependent on public orders. However, the crisis has frozen local government tenders. We hope that the speeches of European governments on the necessary energy transition will be translated into volumes! “, He insists.
Lower cost than diesel
The electric bus market is developing at high speed, in China but also in European countries. According to Christophe Gurtner, the total cost of an electric bus (including maintenance and fuel) is now equivalent to, or even lower than, that of a diesel bus, over its lifespan of 12 to 15 years. “The Chinese bus market is now almost entirely switched to electric, which represents around 100,000 buses per year! ” In Europe, 1,700 electric buses were sold last year, “and other countries such as Germany, England and Scandinavia are advancing faster than France,” regrets the manager.
Forsee Power, which has just raised 30 million euros “in the midst of the Covid crisis”, is finalizing more global financing which should enable it to finance its growth, open new factories and make possible acquisitions. Coming from a subsidiary of Alcatel, to which the manager has added assets from Dassault and Dow Chemical, the company is now owned by the Idinvest fund (45%), bpifrance (15%), Mitsui (20%), the Dassault family (10%) and Christophe Gurtner (10%).