Luc Chatel, PFA: “the automobile is facing its destiny”

Luc Chatel, PFA: “the automobile is facing its destiny”

The President of the PFA returns on the challenges of the French automotive industry in the coming years. All these topics will be discussed on the occasion of the Day of the car industry, which will take place Monday, December 2, 2019, in Bercy.

On the eve of the Day of the automotive industry, which will be held Monday, December 2, 2019 in Bercy, attended by many captains of industry such as Jean-Dominique Senard (Renault), Jacques Aschenbroich (Valeo) or Félicie Burelle (Plastic Omnium ), Luc Chatel , the president of the Automotive Platform (PFA) presented upstream the main themes that will be on the agenda. ” We have identified four main topics: technological transformation, relations between contractors and subcontractors, employment, training and trades and the competitiveness of the industry, ” said the former minister.

More than 600 companies answered the call to attend the event, against 300 planned at the start. ” This success is linked to the current and future situation of the industry ,” says Luc Chatel, ” The French automotive industry is facing its destiny.” France was a great automobile nation throughout the 20th century. about now is if we are able, in the 21st century, to remain a great car nation and mobility services? are we still in the game? will we resist the upheavals taking place? the truth is that not everyone will survive, as it is the case in all major technological changes ” .

The industry is worried

These future changes (electrification, connected and autonomous vehicle, place of cars in society …) will be put on the table on December 2, hoping that the government, represented on this occasion by Bruno Le Maire , the Minister of Economics and Finance, and Agnès Pannier-Rusacher , Secretary of State to the Minister, take full measure. According to Luc Chatel, ” these big upheavals come at the worst of times.” The car, which has experienced nine years of growth since the crisis, is experiencing a turnaround.If we have limited the damage in Europe this year, the countries emerging markets have already rocked, the decline is now expected in developed countries, the returns of the sector are not good “.

If the sector contract signed in 2018 with the government has made it possible to respond to certain issues, it is not enough to stem the looming crisis. ” It is very important that we are anticipating what could happen, if tomorrow you have the combination of market reversals and structural changes, it will be very difficult.“, insists the President of the PFA.Three tracks have been identified to precisely relieve the sector: improve the competitiveness of the French automotive industry as has been the case in Spain in recent years, facilitate access to credit by implementing set up a guarantee fund and reactivate the credit mediation, and finally support companies and employees in future changes, on the latter subject, Luc Chatel proposes that companies in difficulty be accompanied in their process of reconversion to markets more buoyant and that the employees victims of the decline in sales of diesel vehicles (15 000 jobs concerned) are trained in the trades of tomorrow.

Insufficient “bonus” budget

The former minister also intends to alert the government specifically to the challenges of electrification. ” In Europe, manufacturers will invest in 220 billion euros for 5 years only for electrification.They have no choice under penalty of exposing themselves to heavy fines, but their operating margins will suffer, it So it’s important to keep an incentive mechanism like the bonus, but the lack of stability of this device is a huge problem, reducing the amount of the bonus would be disastrous, “he claims. The PFA estimates that the number of electric vehicles to be put into the road by 2020 will reach 100,000 in order for manufacturers to avoid CO2 penalties. To date, the planned bonus envelope only covers half of these sales, “the budget does not follow the slope that we are obliged to respect “regrets Luc Chatel who also points the lack of charging stations on the public space.

Related Posts

Read also x