Paris (AFP)
President Emmanuel Macron receives representatives of the automotive industry at the Elysee Palace on Monday, which calls for help to finance its ecological transition and in particular to switch to the electric motor, an acceleration that will require, according to the sector, more than 17 billion euros of here in 2025.
One year after the implementation of the automotive recovery plan in May 2020, the Head of State will bring together manufacturers, equipment suppliers, social partners and representatives of the sectors to "mobilize the automotive sector in the face of the acceleration of the ecological transition" and "to build, at national and European level, a common strategic vision for 2030", announced the Elysee on Saturday.
"This is a necessary transformation that the president is ready to support, as part of an automobile investment plan which is as strengthened as possible at European level", adds the Elysee, recalling that 'an "eight billion euro plan" was announced in May 2020 in the context of exiting the Covid-19 crisis.
Discussions on Monday should focus on "a detailed transition plan, with a strong ambition for future activities (batteries, hydrogen, power electronics, embedded software, charging stations, etc.) and enhanced support for all of the sector affected by this transition ", according to the same source.
The sector estimates the investments to be located in France within five years at 17 billion euros, "on the key automotive technologies of the 21st century", underlines the Automotive Industry Platform (PFA) which assesses the need for public support to 30%.
# photo1
The sector, which worked with the McKinsey firm, believes that it will need 9 billion to capture and (re) localize these technologies in France: electric batteries (for 6.6 billion), hydrogen (1.2 billion), electronics of power (900 million), connectivity.
He recalls that France has only two "gigafactories" for batteries when it would take five times more by 2030.
The PFA estimates that the economic impact of these investments would result in the creation of more than 35,000 jobs and 7.5 billion euros in added value.
Some 8.5 billion euros would also be needed to accelerate the deployment of electric charging stations, which France is now lagging behind: around 33,000 installed to date, when 100,000 were expected at the end of 2021, according to the Association for the Development of Electric Mobility (Avere).
- Switch to 2035?
-
"We are very clearly facing the risk of a scenario of decline which will take France out of the major countries of the automotive industry. We can also turn it into a start-up opportunity that requires a new industrial ambition," told AFP Luc Chatel, the president of the PFA.
"The automotive industry of tomorrow will be electric? Let us put in place the measures so that this irreversible change is sustainable," he adds.
According to him, "France represents today only 9% of the added value of the European automobile industry. We must give ourselves the means to change scale on batteries, hydrogen ... by succeeding in locating massively by France investments ".
Monday's meeting should also make it possible to "refine" the position of Paris on the EU's proposals on the end of gasoline engines, believes a source within the industry, who expects a positioning of France for an end in 2035.
The European Commission is due to propose new regulations on July 14 to reduce CO2 emissions from new vehicles to zero in order to combat climate change.
According to several sources, it envisages the complete elimination of automobile emissions from 2035. Battery-powered electric vehicles being the only ones to meet this requirement, they would de facto become the only ones authorized on the new market.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) did the math recently: according to its projections, manufacturers must end the sale of new combustion cars by 2035, if the world is to achieve carbon neutrality mid-century and curb global warming.
tsz-cho-jri-ib / kd / or
© 2021 AFP