Faurecia, a world-leading automotive technology company, welcomes the measures announced by the French President in favor of the automotive industry, in particular the support for Research & Development and public orders of fuel cell electric vehicles.
France is the historical center of the Group’s activities, with 30 industrial sites and 7 R&D centers, employing more than 13,700 people, including 1,600 engineers. France plays a strategic role in the Group’s design and development of its Sustainable Mobility and Cockpit of the Future technologies.
Strategic investments in France for Zero Emission Mobility
Convinced of the importance of hydrogen technology in Zero Emission Mobility, Faurecia recently created its global center of expertise dedicated to the development and production of hydrogen storage systems in Bavans (Doubs), representing an initial investment of 25 million euros and the creation of 60 high value-added jobs. This center of expertise will supply new-generation high-pressure tanks from summer 2021 onwards. The Group also plans to build a larger plant in France, which would represent an additional investment of around 50 million euros and the creation of 150 jobs.
Faurecia and Michelin have also created a joint venture – Symbio – with 200 employees, bringing together all of the two Groups’ hydrogen fuel cell stack activities, with an initial investment of 140 million euros. The two partners intend to build a new plant dedicated to the production of fuel cell stacks in the Lyon region.
Government support for industrial and technological projects in the field of sustainable mobility, and hydrogen in particular, will be key in enabling Faurecia to make these investments, create a competitive French industrial sector and generate hundreds of high value-added jobs.
CO2 neutrality and digital transformation, strategic approaches to industrial transformation
The environment is a major issue for future generations and is at the center of the Group’s Convictions for sustainable development. Faurecia has set itself the primary objective of achieving CO2 neutrality for scopes 1 & 2 by 2025. Over the next five years, 70 million euros will be invested in efforts to achieve this objective.
In addition, in 2017, Faurecia created a center of expertise to develop artificial intelligence-based solutions in order to accelerate its digital transformation. This “Digital Service Factory” has already created 150 jobs and is helping to significantly improve the competitiveness of Faurecia’s industrial activities.