One year after the presentation of the Circular Economy project of the Renaulution Strategic Plan called Refactory SevillaRenault has inaugurated this Friday with the presence of the Minister of Industry maroto kingsthe president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juan Manuel Morenoand the Chairman and CEO of the Renault Group, the Spanish Jose Vicente de los Mozossome facilities that become the first Circular Economy center that allows vehicles to be given a second life.
This facility had 1.42 million euros of aid from the PERTE Fundsand it is one of the 10 projects awarded to Renault Spain, which will receive a total amount of 40 million of the 870 articulated through European Next Generation EU funds.
This inauguration is also one of the last official acts of José Vicente de los Mozos at the head of the diamond company, since the manager announced that on January 15 he will leave his post at Renault Group. From the waiters he was received at the entrance of the Sevillian factory with applause from the workers.
The still Industrial Director of the Renault Group and Chairman and CEO of Renault Spain has declared that with this inauguration the first circular economy project fully dedicated to mobility in Spain is launched “which offers Premium quality used vehicles responding to the sustainability challenges currently facing the automotive industry. With more than 50 years of consolidated history in the Andalusian industrial fabric, Refactory Sevilla reinvents itself and is located at the epicenter of the new era of mobility”.
In addition, De los Mozos made a request to the Minister of Industry to include hybrid vehicles in the next Part, “since the automotive industry is in an orderly transition period, in which hybrid vehicles still have a long way to gowith one or two more generations until reaching total electrification.
José Vicente de los Mozos, surrounded by Renault workers at the Seville Refactory
Regarding his departure from the company, in which he has developed his entire professional career since he entered as an apprentice, de los mozos has stated that it is a personal decision, since “at Renault Spain the employees are leaving with 59 and 60 years and I have not wanted to be different. If everyone therefore leaves at that age, I want to be the same«. Regarding his future, he has ruled out joining any company related to the automotive sector for the moment, and has denied rumors regarding his possible move into politics. In this sense, the Spanish manager has been emphatic: »I am not a politician. I am an employee who started as an apprentice and since then I have continued working. I am 60 years old and I have been going to Paris from Monday to Friday for 12 years, and now I need to live. My family needs me, that’s why I want to go back to my country. It’s been many years and it’s time to go home and do things in my country”.
The manager referred to the inauguration of the Refactory at the Seville plant as one of the important projects included in the Renault Industrial Plan Spain 2021-2024, which aims to turn Spain into the Renault Group Electrification Pole. Awards included 5 new vehicles and a new engine family for plants in Castilla y León. Within the framework of the same plan, it was announced that the Seville factory would receive an innovative Circular Economy project and two new hybrid gearboxes to be fitted to the new range of Renault Group hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
Today, it already manufactures one of these two hybrid gearboxes in addition to the gearbox for pure electric motors, which are mounted on vehicles in the Renault range such as the 100% electric Megane E-Tech and the new Renault Austral. This makes it the center of the Renault Group where production of all the Group’s hybrid gearboxes is concentrated.
This Refactory center will give used vehicles a second life, offering premium quality used vehicles at competitive prices, thanks to the combination of efficient and standardized industrial tools with the industrial know-how of the Renault Group.
The activity will be structured around four lines that will accompany the entire useful life of the vehicle, acting on the main levers of the Circular Economy.
In the Re-Trofit line, a 4.0 facility is inaugurated today that houses in 5,000 m2 all the activities necessary for the reconditioning of used multi-brand vehicles, which will allow them to give a second life and extend the useful life to more than 11,000 vehicles per year.
The new facilities consume 100% of their electrical energy from renewable sources and have a fully digitized process with high performance in their execution times, which saves energy and resources, offering a reconditioned vehicle within a maximum period of 12 days, a 50% reduction compared to a workshop.
After an exhaustive wash, in which only 3 liters of water are consumed, the vehicle damage assessment begins, which includes an innovative scanning of the tire tracks that allows the vehicle to be diagnosed and corrected if necessary. .
The expert opinion allows the elaboration of a budget, which, when accepted by the client, will launch the order of the parts that will be necessary for its repair.
The facilities have mechanics and bodywork as well as a pioneer painting station that concentrates in a very small space: a preparation area for sanding, a specially vacuumed and filtered space; an infrared drying area (smart repair) and a heated paint booth that allows offering an optimized process in continuous flow without interruptions.
Once reconditioned, it is carried out a review of 100 checkpoints, in addition to the management of the ITV. After receiving the quality approval, the cycle ends with a new exhaustive cleaning and a photographic and video report, as steps prior to storage or transport.
Thanks to its digitized information systems, this workshop, dedicated exclusively to used vehicles, offers unitary monitoring of each vehicle, allowing the customer to know at all times the status of their vehicle and the stage of the process it is in.
The second phase, RE-ENERGYbrings the potential use of electric batteries to an industrial scale, developing applications in the second life of the modules that are no longer operative for the vehicle -but can be used for stationary energy storage-, and end-of-life management. useful life.
for his part RE-CYCLE It will contribute to an efficient management of resources and the flow of supply of parts and materials and RE-START will promote and identify new activities that allow continuing to innovate in terms of circular economy, developing the training of new skills. Refactory de Sevilla will be an open ecosystem in which, in collaboration with the French Flins factory, the Valladolid R&D Center, different partners, startups and university centers, it will speed up research and training on the mobility of the future.