France: a 2 billion euro savings plan and four factories threatened at Renault

Production line at the Renault factory in Flins, near Paris, on May 6, 2020. REUTERS / Gonzalo Fuentes

Text by: RFI Follow

The French car manufacturer Renault could close three factories in France and its emblematic site in Flins could change its activity. According to information from the satirical weekly, Le Canard Enchaîné, the diamond brand should proceed with a savings plan of 2 billion euros. 

Publicity

Read more

The crisis that Renault is going through has little to do with the coronavirus pandemic. The automaker was already in bad shape before the introduction of containment measures that hurt the entire auto industry.

Last February, during the presentation of the results for the year 2019, the group's general manager, Clotilde Desbosse, spoke of a worrying situation that would require cutting costs. In 2019 Renault lost 141 billion euros. To raise the bar Renault will have to put in place a savings plan of 2 billion euros by 2022.

►Read also : Sales of Renault and PSA at half mast

According to the revelations of the satirical weekly, Le Canard enchaîné , the manufacturer could announce the closure of several factories in France: the Choisy-le-Roi site, in the Paris region, which is renovating engines, but also that of Dieppe , which had been relaunched thanks to the new Alpine, as well as the Brittany foundries, at Caudan, which manufactures cast iron parts for the engines. As for the Flins factory, which assembles the Zoe and the Micra from Nissan, it could not close but stop producing cars for the benefit of another activity.

A plan presented on May 29 

Renault is due to present the broad outlines of its vast savings plan on May 29. It puts more than a thousand employees on the hot seat. These announcements arouse strong reactions in the political class, which claims the protection of the French flagship Renault. Same indignation at the CGT, where Philippe Martinez reminds us that closing factories "  is unthinkable when we want to reindustrialize the country  ".

Obviously, we react very badly, because what Renault needs is to re-produce Renault in France, and to work again for employment in France ," said the general secretary of the CGT on RTL. . This is the question that is asked, because the situation of Renault is not due to the health crisis. It is due to years of governance of Carlos Ghosn, who has been erected as a god for years, but we see the consequences of his strategy. And so, it is this strategy that must be changed!  "

Newsletter Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • France
  • Automobile
  • Economic crisis
  • Employment and Work
  • Carlos Ghosn
  • Industry

On the same subject

Luca de Meo appointed new boss of Renault

Automobile

Renault and PSA sales at half mast

Japan / Carlos Ghosn

Renault-Nissan: a year ago, Ghosn's arrest caused a shock wave