France will boost support for environment-friendly cars as part of a recovery plan unveiled yesterday amid growing concern for the country’s crisis-hit auto industry and top carmaker Peugeot.
Highlighting the difficulties facing the French auto sector, PSA Peugeot Citroen announced yesterday it had suffered a first half net loss of €819 million, more than reversing a year-earlier net profit of €806 million.
The recovery plan includes a range of measures to boost cleaner vehicles amid hopes French carmakers can carve out a niche in the market.
But it also contains hints of protectionism, with France planning to ask the European Union to put its 2010 Free Trade Agreement with South Korea under surveillance to “defend the interests of the French automobile industry.”
The plan will boost consumer bonuses for purchasing electric cars from €5,000 to €7,000 and for hybrids from €2,000 to €4,000.
It will see the government commit to 25 per cent of its new vehicles being electric or hybrid and provide for financing facilities for manufacturers and suppliers suffering from a major drop in European car sales.
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the government had chosen to “go on the offensive” with the plan, which he said was “extremely ambitious”.
“This is part of our very great determination to see the automotive industry recover, this is an extremely important act,” he said.
Peugeot, France’s biggest carmaker and the second-largest in Europe, had been expected to announce a first-half net loss but the final figure was more than double analysts’ expectations.
Peugeot said overall revenues were down 5.1 per cent in the first half to €29.6 billion while the auto division alone suffered a net loss of €662 million. Sales in Europe fell 15.2 per cent.
The company, which has already announced 8,000 job cuts in France, said it will implement a €1.5 billion cost reduction plan through to 2015.
The cost-cutting plan will include €600 million in savings from reorganising French production, which includes the job cuts, reductions in capital spending and savings from a tie-up with US giant General Motors.
“The group is facing difficult times,” Peugeot chief Philippe Varin said.
“The depth and persistence of the crisis impacting our business in Europe requires the launch of the reorganisation of our French production base and a reduction in our structural costs,” he said.
After the results, agency Fitch said it was lowering its rating on Peugeot’s long-term debt by one notch to BB, with a negative outlook.
President François Hollande’s new Socialist government has attacked Peugeot’s strategy and called the job cuts “unacceptable”.
The cuts announcement sparked anger among France’s powerful unions and dealt a blow to Mr Hollande’s efforts to get the economy back on track amid concerns the country might be heading for a recession after an expected contraction in the second quarter.
Peugeot, which employs 100,000 people in France, is a key symbol of the country’s industry and its problems highlight France’s difficulty in competing with rivals with lower labour costs.
At least 1,000 Peugeot employees protested outside the company’s headquarters yesterday including many from the company’s historic Aulnay plant near Paris that is due to cease production.