The Renault factory in Flins, May 6, 2020. – AFP
The French manufacturer Renault plans to permanently stop automobile production at the Flins (Yvelines) factory which assembles the electric city car Zoe and the Nissan Micra, according to a source close to the file, partially confirming information from the Duck Chained.
The diamond group is set to unveil on May 29 the outlines of a vast 2 billion-euro economy plan announced in February. “Four factories would be closed in France: Choisy-le-Roi, Dieppe and the Foundries of Brittany, to start. The big piece – Flins (….) – will come later, ”says The chained Duck, without citing a source.
In Flins, however, this is not a closure but a halt in automobile production to devote the site to another activity, a source close to the file told AFP. A second source confirmed that the outright closure of the factory was not topical, without excluding that it was envisaged. When questioned, Renault management declined to comment. Same silence at the Ministry of Economy.
160,000 vehicles produced last year
Inaugurated in 1952, the Flins-sur-Seine plant has seen some twenty emblematic models of the brand, including the Dauphine, the R4 and the R5. Recently, it assembled the city cars Zoe (electric) and Micra (from the Nissan partner) with 2,600 employees. The site produced 160,000 vehicles last year, including Renault Clio, a model now fully outsourced to Turkey.
Struggling before the coronavirus crisis, which caused the car market to collapse, Renault had suffered its first losses in ten years last year. The cessation of activity caused by the pandemic has only worsened the situation. The manufacturer saw its financial rating lowered in April to the rank of speculative investment by the agency Standard and Poor’s.
The French government, Renault’s largest shareholder with 15% of the capital, has agreed to come to the rescue of the company by guaranteeing a bank loan of around 5 billion euros. The state-guaranteed loan, approved by the European Union, was close to being signed on Tuesday evening, a source said. The acting director general, Clotilde Delbos, had indicated at the end of April that this loan did not call into question the plan of savings of Renault, nor possible layoffs, the only condition fixed by the government being the renunciation of dividends paid to shareholders this year.
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