"In France, the car, this is something", recently said Emmanuel Macron paraphrasing Georges Pompidou, president of the Republic in the 70s. Is this still true? If sales go well, production in France can say the same? The stakes are high. Beyond the object, and the freedom of movement it allows you, the automotive sector is, as expected, not trivial at all: in 2016, about 2.200.000 people were employed in the sector, with 8% of the active population.

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the decline began at the turn of the millennium

It was fifteen years ago, in 2004: France beat its record of automobile production, with 3.66 million vehicles left the production national. A figure of reference, which now seems unattainable: last year, the production tricolor was 2.27 million vehicles. And even if the figure is rising after the dark years of crisis (1.75 million in 2013), the country fails to raise truly its industry, in contrast to other european countries, which have mostly recovered their production level of the years 2000. While the world production reached a new record in 2017 with 97.4 million vehicles, France has fallen to the tenth largest producer, behind Brazil, Mexico, Spain, South Korea and India.

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The evolution of the production of passenger cars in France, between 1960 and 2014 (credits auto-forever.com). auto-forever.com Relocation progressive but closures spectacular

But be careful to make the difference: the decline of national competitiveness, is not the decline of the French manufacturers. In fact, PSA is no more than a third of its vehicles in France (if one fails Opel, which now belongs to the group), and Renault about 20%. According to the committee of French manufacturers of automotive, last year, 7.8 million vehicles have been sold by the French car manufacturers in the world. The departure abroad of this production is done gradually: in this industry where products have a few years of life, the "relocations" have taken place over the long term. At the end of the 1990s, the manufacturers have made the bet to gradually transfer to Europe of the South, the East, the Maghreb or to Asia in their production of city and compact cars. These models have tight margins, and the French labour force has long been too expensive for them. Clio, Twingo, C3... They are now produced in Turkey, in Slovenia or in Slovakia.

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echo well after 1992 and the closure of the historical factory of Renault in Boulogne-Billancourt, the personnel reductions were chained, and between 2005 and 2017, more than 100,000 jobs have been lost, according to COE-Rexecode, a quarter of the direct employment by the manufacturers. Some other production sites were closed, and in the emotion of the media, the anger of the unions and the nostalgia. Matra closed its doors at Romorantin in 2003. The PSA plant of Aulnay-sous-Bois, created by Citroën in 1972 to produce the DS, was shut down in late 2013 after a long political fight. The site Renault Flins employs more than 2640 people, still 7000 in the year 2000, and far of the 20,000 in the 1970s.

of Course, one cannot blame the manufacturers to install it where the demand is stronger, the competitiveness far better and also the prospects the more enticing. In 2015, there were 182 vehicles per 1000 inhabitants in the world, whereas in Europe or in North America, the ratio is rather around 600 vehicles per 1000 inhabitants.

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Date Of Update: 31 March 2019, 00:00