SMM: on November 25th, Renault announced that it would not assemble new cars at the (Flins) plant in Frings, France, and planned to transform the plant into a research, recycling and maintenance center by 2024, a move aimed at saving full-time jobs at the plant.
Renault said it planned to employ 3000 people at the revamped Frings plant by 2030. The 3000 employees will include workers from the nearby Choisy-le-Roi plant, which is designated to be closed by Renault and currently employs 2400 regular workers, but the plant usually works with about 1400 temporary workers and its future is unknown. De Meo says the Frings plant may be open to other companies, which will create more jobs.
Until 2024, Renault will continue to produce electric car Zoe, at the Frings plant and carry out new activities, including retrofitting cars for long-term leasing, forming a team to study electric car battery innovation, and recycling car parts. The company said the transformation was a way to save the plant because jobs at the plant could be threatened as the group focused on profitable models and cost-cutting.
The Frings plant will also be the first circular economy plant in Europe to achieve carbon dioxide balance by 2030. The plant will consist of four activity centres where experts will upgrade the main components of the circular economy (supply chain, ecological design, functional economy, maintenance, reuse, reproduction and recycling) to support the entire life cycle of the car.
Luca De Meo, Renault's chief executive, said he would retrain staff, but did not provide budget details. Renault expects the plant to be able to produce 130000 modified cars a year by 2030.
"it is impossible to maintain the status quo and we need to know clearly about that," Senard said in an online news conference after Jean-Dominique Senard, Renault chairman, and De Meo, Renault chief executive, held a meeting with the Frings union.
The Frings union did not agree to cancel plans to produce cars at the plant and proposed that some car assembly should be retained in the long run, but the proposal was rejected.
Renault has announced that it will cut 4600 jobs in France as part of its plan to cut costs of about $2.4 billion. The company's profitability weakened before the outbreak.
