The French manufacturer Renault plans to definitively stop car production at the Flins (Yvelines) factory which assembles the electric city car Zoe and the Nissan Micra, according to a source close to the file, partially confirming information from the Canard Enchaîné .
The diamond group must unveil on May 29 the outlines of a vast savings plan of 2 billion euros announced in February. “Four factories would be closed in France: Choisy-le-Roi, Dieppe and the Foundries of Brittany, to begin with. The big piece - Flins (….) - will come later, ”says Le Canard enchaîné , without citing a source.
In Flins, however, this is not a closure but the stoppage of automobile production to devote the site to another activity, told AFP a source familiar with the matter. A second source confirmed that the outright closure of the factory was not topical, without excluding that it was envisaged. When questioned, Renault management declined to comment. Same silence at the Ministry of the Economy.
160,000 vehicles produced last year
Inaugurated in 1952, the Flins-sur-Seine factory has seen around twenty emblematic models of the brand, including the Dauphine, the R4 and the R5. Recently, it assembled the city cars Zoe (electric) and Micra (from the Nissan partner) with 2,600 employees. The site produced 160,000 vehicles last year, including Renault Clio, a model now fully outsourced to Turkey.
Struggling before the coronavirus crisis, which caused the car market to collapse, Renault had suffered its first losses in ten years last year. The cessation of activity caused by the pandemic has only worsened the situation. The manufacturer saw its financial rating lowered in April to the rank of speculative investment by the agency Standard and Poor's.
The French government, Renault's largest shareholder with 15% of the capital, has agreed to come to the aid of the company by guaranteeing a bank loan of around 5 billion euros. The state-guaranteed loan, approved by the European Union, was close to being signed on Tuesday evening, a source said. Acting director general Clotilde Delbos said at the end of April that this loan did not jeopardize Renault's savings plan or any job cuts, the only condition set by the government being the renunciation of dividends paid to shareholders this year.
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