Where the future of the automotive industry is being written
Automotive passion is the driver of a fabulous industrial adventure turned towards the future
Peugeot Sochaux, birthplace of the automotive industry … French style
The Peugeot adventure is a perfect illustration of the pioneering spirit and industrial genius that have marked North Franche-Comté for over 200 years.
The Sochaux site is the flagship of PSA Group. With 9,000 employees, it is one of the largest industrial complexes in Europe.
It has produced 27 million vehicles since it started. In 2017 it manufactured 25% of all cars made in France, all makes combined, a decisive performance to put France back on the podium of the European automotive market.
In 2018, the output will reach 500,000 vehicles, not only with the legendary Peugeot lion emblem but also with the Citroën chevron, DS wings and the horizontal lightning bolt of Opel. The PSA Sochaux site won an outstanding double victory with the 308 and 3008 models both awarded “European Car of the Year”.
The 2022 Plan commits 200 million euros to transform this young centenarian into one of the most modern and competitive automotive plants in Europe.
A world-class network of excellence
The two spearhead units of PSA Group (Sochaux and Mulhouse) foster a production cluster that has generated nearly 100,000 jobs in North Franche-Comté and Southern Alsace.
This outstanding ecosystem comprises the whole of the value chain: R&D and engineering, laboratories and test platforms, component suppliers, technical subcontractors, logistics as well as system integrators, toolmakers and industrial maintenance service providers.
These industry players have adopted the most demanding standards of the global automotive sector. They supply not only Peugeot, their number one and historical customer but also most other OEMs in Europe and beyond, both generalist and premium carmakers.
Among the great names of the automotive industry firmly rooted in North Franche-Comté: Delfingen, Faurecia, Flex-N-Gate, Fsd-Snop, Fuji Autotech, Gefco, Geodis, Lisi Automotive, Mahle, Magnetto Automotive, Plastic Omnium, Plastivaloire and Bourbon AP, SMRC, TI Automotive, Trèves, Voestalpine.
The Belchamp Technical Center is a discreet but vital link in PSA Group’s value chain in North Franche-Comté. It tests and validates all of the prototypes and pre-series vehicles designed in Sochaux and Vélizy, thanks to its 25 test tracks and 1,400 associated means of testing.
A major R&D hub, from design to production
PSA Sochaux has broken all the records! It is also PSA Group’s second-largest European hub for R&D and ranks first for patent filing for the past ten years. One third of the site’s manpower is dedicated to the design engineering of new vehicles.
The whole of the Group’s European models, designed in Sochaux or in Vélizy, are tested on the tracks of the Belchamp testing center near Sochaux.
The greatest names in engineering support and strengthen this engineering capacity: Akka Technologies, Altran, Assystem, Bertrandt, Magna Steyr France, Segula Technologies…
And of course, we must also mention the world R&D center of Faurecia Clean Mobility, global leader in emission control as well as the European headquarters of the American Flex-N-Gate, tier-one supplier of components.
A competitiveness cluster inventing the mobility solutions of tomorrow
The “Véhicule of the Future” competitiveness cluster federates the competencies of a vast automotive cluster that reaches out far beyond its core in North Franche-Comté and Southern Alsace.
500 members (companies, public or private laboratories, schools of engineering and universities) cooperate on innovative projects to imagine the solutions of the future for mobility on land.
In 15 years, the “Vehicle of the Future” cluster has committed 800 million euros for 200 innovative projects for products or services, shaped around strategic themes:
Parallel to this, Perfo-Est accompanies industries in their access to production process innovation and competitiveness, laying the foundations for the plants of the future like Sochaux 2022.
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