After steam and thermal propulsion, the automotive world is experiencing a new industrial revolution. While Europe has voted to end the sale of heat engines in 2035, Renault, like all manufacturers, is turning to electric, particularly in its Cléon plant (Seine-Maritime), now devoted to manufacturing electric motors. On Tuesday July 5, it inaugurated the ept-160kw production line, which will equip the future Mégane E-Tech Electric. Others will follow quickly.
Located in Cléon, near Rouen, since the end of the 1950s, the Renault Group factory was for decades the temple of internal combustion engines. Ninety-eight million engines and gearboxes have rolled off the foundry and assembly lines. Today, it has become the only manufacturing plant for the group’s electric motors and gear motors. “Electrification starts here! said Jose-Vincente de Los Mozos, Industrial Director of Renault Group and Director of Renault Iberia, during the inauguration of the new production line for the ept-160kw.
Already 620 million euros invested
Thus, after the 5A which equips the Zoé and the Kango, this new engine, developed jointly with Nissan, will be 25% more compact, lighter and will develop 220 HP. Will follow in 2024, the 5DH for hybrid propulsion built in Spain, the 6AK in 2024 for the future electric Renault 5, and in 2027 the 7A, a new generation designed with Valeo.
Renault hopes to produce 500,000 units per year by 2025: “We are witnessing in this plant an unprecedented transformation for our group. It’s a transition that will take several years, supported by a complete value chain that includes the construction of cars, engines, batteries and power electronics. Our desire is to develop a strong economic ecosystem in France. We are in battle order to respond to the fight against global warming,” says Jose-Vincente de Los Mozos. To do this, Renault has already invested 620 million euros since 2018.
This technological transition must be supplemented by support for the professions, in particular by vocational training, “because in the manufacture of electric motors we find all the traditional trades such as machining, gears, mechanics, but we also need specific skills, particularly in winding and impregnation. You need know-how that influences the cost of manufacture,” explains the manager.
No layoffs announced
To do this, the Cléon plant now has the E-mobility Academy whose leitmotif is “learning by doing”. It is aimed at company employees, but also at new recruits, including around a hundred permanent employees in June. Thanks to an investment of one million euros, the training center will enable technicians to obtain certification in 19 days, while engineers will do so in 31 days.
The first promotion of six trainees joined the educational production line on Monday July 11. Jose-Vincente de Los Mozos also insisted on the fact that the factory will not poach, even if fewer people are needed to manufacture an electric motor: “you have to see the whole picture. We will also manufacture power electronics here in the future. There will be no impact on employment. We just have to support the transition now”.