PSA – Hauts-de-France region: exclusive negotiations are underway for a battery plant
Peugeot-Citroën is aiming to offer a range of 100% electric vehicles by 2025. In order to achieve this, the group wants to build a gigafactory (for the production of batteries) in France. The project will be carried out in partnership with SAFT, a subsidiary of the Total group. There are three sites under consideration – Douvrin (Hauts-de-France) Trémery (Grand Est) and Sochaux (Bourgogne-Franche-Comté) – with Hauts-de-France the front-runner and in mid-December, the region entered into exclusive negotiations with the group. This decision followed a vote to allocate €121M funding for the project, of which €80M will come from regional funds and €41M from local authorities.
“Douvrin is PSA’s first choice for this ambitious industrial project,” said Hauts-de-France President Xavier Bertrand. “It needed to be certain of our financial support.”
This wide-reaching project meets the long-term strategic objectives of the European Commission. It represents a total investment of €2.2 billion for the creation of 2,500 jobs. The final decision will be made by the PSA group at the start of next year.
Why is Hauts-de-France in pole position for this project?
In addition to the financial assistance already agreed, the region has many structural advantages which make it the ideal location to build a battery factory for electric vehicles:
- It is the 1st French automotive region in France in terms of vehicle production (700,000 a year) and gearboxes (1.3M a year)*.
- It is the second most attractive region in France for foreign investments**
- It is France’s most attractive region for FDI in terms of industrial projects***
- It boasts a dynamic automotive ecosystem – supported by the private and public sectors and universities – (the Hauts-de-France automotive cluster, Critt M2A, Valutec, etc.)
- A number of global car manufacturers are already based in the region: PSA, Toyota and Renault and more than 550 suppliers, subcontractors and service providers for the sector
*CCI Hauts-de-France study 2019 **Business France 2018 report/IBM ***EY study 2019