Parlez-vous Automoteur? France ranks high on the list of European auto manufacturing giants

Automotive Industries, August, 2003 by Rob Wilson

Though it doesn't spring to mind as the most likely place to be investing in the global automotive market, that doesn't mean that interests in Northern France are quiescent about promoting the region's automotive prowess and infrastructure. An economic development group, Invest In Northern France, recently showed off some of the region's automotive assembly plants, supplier facilities, design schools, research parks, and technical centers.

They are world class, for certain. And in this era of bench marking, best practice and continuous improvement, anything less simply wouldn't do. Since French automobiles have not been sold in the U.S. for many years, many French accomplishments are largely a matter of production and sales figures. Still, those numbers do impress.

In the European picture France ranks second only to Germany in vehicle production and in the worldwide picture it ranks fourth, with the U.S. and Japan ranked first and second respectively. France produced 3.6 million vehicles in 2001 and again in 2002 and exported nearly 70 percent of domestic production.

Renault and PSA Peugeot-Citroen dominate the French market, each with about 30 percent market share. Transplants like Toyota and Mercedes also build cars in France for domestic purchase or export.

There are also some interesting joint ventures such as Sevelnord, which is a PSA/Flat complex for producing minivans and light utility vehicles. With an output of 800 vehicles per day, it is claimed to be the only plant in Europe producing seven different cars on the same line.

The models include the Citroen C8, Fiat Ulysse, Lancia Phedra and Peugeot 807 minivan and the Citroen Jumpy, Fiat Scudo and Peugeot Expert utility vehicles. The plant recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.

By contrast the new Toyota factory at Valenciennes is dedicated to a single model, the extremely popular Yaris. Production at Valenciennes began in January 2001. Production is currently 184,000 per year, but is scheduled to increase to 210,000 next spring; It is a very integrated assembly plant, incorporating stampings as well as assembly of two gasoline engines and one diesel.

Over 150,000 employees make up the automotive sector in France. The supplier tiers employ another 135,000. Foreign suppliers account for more than 60 percent of the combined suppliers sales of about $22 billion annually.

France is a very central location and thus much of the supplier production, as much as 42 percent, is exported annually, Foreign suppliers actually export more than 70 percent of their production to other countries.

Our visits were concentrated in northwestern France in the regions of Haute Normandie and Nord--Pas deCalais, which account for as much as 30 percent of total vehicle production in France.

One of our first stops was at a wooded research park near the city of Rouen called Technopole du Madrillet. Created by the French government and the Haute Normandie region, this center combines institutions of higher education, independent companies and public and private sector laboratories to concentrate technological capabilities in support of the aerospace and automotive sectors. There are three more Technopoles in Haute Normandie specializing in other sectors.

It is in essence a technical transfer enabler, bridging the gaps between basic research, developmental engineering and application engineering. Different types of high tech groups and individuals covering many engineering and scientific disciplines can be brought together on a permanent or ad hoe basis to solve the challenge du jour.

Some of the separate disciplines include: combustion and plasma research; laser metrology applied to engine testing; mechanics laboratory;, NVH testing; analysis and simulation; nano-analysis of metallic materials; high-speed machining design and research; onboard electronics; shape recognition and visionics; fluid mechanics and other digital simulation.

Not that these capabilities can't be found scattered in auto building centers around the world, what is novel is that so many enterprises are collocated in a common park-like atmosphere and can feed off one another's talents and resources.

Supporting the fourth largest car building nation of the world, one would expect to find most of the key global suppliers in evidence. That indeed is the case. Although our direct visits were concentrated among the French based suppliers, we could also feel the presence of Delphi, Bosch, Visteon, Denso, ArvinMeritor, Siemens, Dana, TRW, Johnson Controls, Oxford Automotive, PPG and others.

Like auto builders elsewhere, Renault, PSA and Toyota are in a continual process of simplifying their sourcing and logistics. Yet it still takes a brigade of suppliers to pull it together. To build the Yaris at Valenciennes Toyota draws upon 186 suppliers throughout Europe, with 47 of them being French.

Now celebrating its 80th anniversary, the French based Valeo was one of our most impressive visits in terms of future looking product and seeing just how involved French based suppliers are with car builders of other nations. Here we drove a pair of demonstrator vehicles, one a BMW 5-Series and the other a VW Golf.