Appointed on January 26 at the head of Valeo, the world’s tenth largest automotive supplier (and France’s second after Faurecia), Christophe Périllat confirmed, in his strategic plan revealed at the end of February, his desire to accelerate the company’s switch to electric cars. , autonomous and connected. He explains to Monde what this new automotive universe, made of electrification, digitization and inflation, implies for his company.
In recent years, you have spent a lot of money and resources to tip Valeo into the automotive future. To such an extent that the financial markets doubted this strategy. Wasn’t it too fast and too risky?
First, know that we generate enough cash to self-finance this transformation. It is true that we had to do a double job during the years 2018-2019: investing in the technologies of the future, while continuing to assume the development costs of internal combustion vehicles. But this effort is mostly behind us: on components such as on-board chargers, we are at the fourth generation of products. We are therefore ahead of our competitors and ahead of our objectives.
In high-voltage electric propulsion, i.e. in the activities of the Valeo Siemens joint venture that we acquired on July 4, we exceeded 4 billion euros in June six months ahead of schedule. cumulative orders in 2021-2022, and one out of three electrified cars worldwide is equipped by Valeo. In terms of driving aids, we recently entered into major partnerships with Stellantis and BMW.
For Valeo, all of this represents real potential for growth, and even hypergrowth. In the electric propulsion part, we will sell content with six to eight times more value than what the heat engine can generate. In the heating-cooling part, it is three times more. In total, our plan provides that we will go from 17 billion euros in turnover in 2021 to 27.5 billion in 2025, with an ambition of 40 billion in 2030.
You are faced with shortages, particularly of semiconductors, as well as the shock of inflation on the price of materials and energy. Won’t that complicate your negotiations with manufacturers?
Indeed, this subject of price increases is the subject of close discussions with our customers, but we will pass on 100% of the inflation to the manufacturers. We will do it because we have no other choice. If we put 1 kg of material in one piece, we can’t charge 700 grams, or it won’t last long. This fact our customers accept and will accept.
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