This transition is highly symbolic for the majority of Emmanuel Macron, who displays the reindustrialization of France as one of his priorities, a few weeks before the presidential election, but the fallout in terms of jobs is to be qualified.

At Trémery, about thirty workers were working one afternoon in February on the first small line of electric motors.

"It's avant-garde. We are immediately asked what we think of it, how it's going, how it's going up", breathes Cédric Metz, plugs in his ears against the mechanical din.

The operator worked for 20 years on gasoline and diesel engines before switching to electric.

The Trémery plant, opened in 1979 by Citroën on 89 hectares near Metz, set its record in 2017 with nearly two million engines produced, 80% of which were diesel.

But the star of this engine has faded with the Dieselgate scandal and the specter of a European ban on thermal engines in 2035.

Heat engine assembly line in Treméry, in the Moselle department, on May 30, 2000 FRANCK FIFE AFP / Archives

So Trémery and its 2,500 employees, passed under the banner of Stellantis after the merger of PSA with Fiat-Chrysler, were converted to gasoline engines, and more and more quickly to electric.

The first electrical assembly line replaced one of the three Diesel workshops in 2019.

The engine produced now equips the electric Peugeot 208, Opel Corsa, DS3 or Citroën C4.

Guided by a magnetic tape, trolleys cross the line, distributing the parts from post to post to about thirty workers.

Robots take over certain positions and check the final work.

"We went electric, we're going there and we're not going to stop," says line manager Stanislas Kohout, who also comes from Diesel.

“We are proud to be the first”.

A few meters away, a second equally compact line is being started: if the first had been designed to produce 120,000 engines per year, then boosted to 180,000, the second promises 300,000.

"Opportunity to relocate"

In a neighboring building, Stellantis and its Japanese partner Nidec are setting up a line that will manufacture rotors and stators, essential elements of the electric motor which are currently largely imported from Asia.

The electric motor assembly line at the Stellantis factory in Trémery, in the Moselle department, on January 27, 2022 Eric PIERMONT AFP / Archives

"The only thing that limits us is the lack of electronic components, they are everywhere on an electric motor", underlines the director of the factory Marc Bauden.

The tasks haven't changed much, but "there are fewer pieces to put together," Kohout points out.

"It's much more automated, but we're creating new jobs," he explains.

"Robotic islands require a certain know-how".

"I don't think it's worrying, because there is demand," said Yosra Idir, 39, one of the few women in the line, who tightens bolts on an engine.

"At some point, we will have to open lines to be able to follow customer demand (...) We will all end up going electric".

The electrification of the automotive industry could however cause the elimination of 52,000 jobs in France, in particular with certain subcontractors, according to a projection for 2030 by the firm AlixPartners.

In Trémery, with automation and relocation, the number of employees has already been halved in twenty years.

Conversely, around twenty thousand jobs could be created in new professions, around charging stations for example.

The reconversion of factories like Trémery, as well as the three electric battery factories which are to open in the north of France, celebrated by the government, will not compensate for everything.

“There is a lot to do around the growth of electricity”, it is “an opportunity to relocate”, underlines economist Bernard Jullien, from the University of Bordeaux.

But with engines that require much less manpower, "we will have to share the scarcity".

At Renault, for example, the engine plant in Cléon (Seine-Maritime) "could satisfy a very large part of the European demand" of the group, he underlines.

Who will produce the last Diesel engine?

The economist is betting on Spain, Romania or Morocco, near the last large Renault and Stellantis assembly plants.

© 2022 AFP