Paris (AFP)
The Renault industrial site at "Flins should not close," said Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire on Europe 1 on Friday, while the automaker must present a savings plan of two billion euros.
"We are now awaiting global proposals from President Jean-Dominique Senard on his plan for the alliance (Renault-Nissan) and his plan for Renault," added the minister.
According to the chained Duck, the French car manufacturer would consider closing four sites in France - Flins, Dieppe, Choisy-le-Roi and the Foundries of Brittany - as part of a plan of 2 billion euros in savings which must to be unveiled on May 29. According to a source familiar with the matter, it would not be a question of Flins of a closure but of stopping automobile production to devote the site to another activity.
The Flins factory in the Yvelines employs 2,600 people and assembles the city cars Zoé (electric) and the Micra from Japanese partner Nissan.
"What seems important to us is knowing what Renault's long-term strategy is. How do they guarantee that tomorrow, electric vehicles will be located in France?" Asked Bruno Le Mayor.
"How do they guarantee that tomorrow, France will become the world's leading production center for electric vehicles for Renault?", Insisted the minister.
Mr. Le Maire estimated in an interview with Le Figaro that the French automobile group, of which the State is a historic shareholder and owns 15% of the capital, "is playing its survival", and specified that it had not yet given its fire green to a loan of five billion euros which should allow Renault to overcome the crisis.
The French industrial flagship finds itself in a very bad patch, having seen its factories and its commercial network paralyzed by the coronavirus crisis and the confinements decided in particular in Europe, which brought the new home market down by 76.3% in April on the Old Continent. The diamond group was already weakened before this episode, having suffered in 2019 its first net loss in ten years.
© 2020 AFP