The car manufacturer Stellantis confirmed on Tuesday June 2 that it would invest “more than a billion euros in France” to produce three new electric or hybrid Peugeot models in Mulhouse, a reassuring announcement for the Alsatian site, well received by the unions. The investment will be distributed 50% in research and development, 40% on the Mulhouse site, and 10% in other sites.
This investment, unveiled last Tuesday by Emmanuel Macron, guarantees the future of the Mulhouse factory (which has around 4,500 employees), one of Stellantis’ five in France. It currently produces Peugeot 308 and 408. The three new models, which will be manufactured from 2029, will be sedans and compact SUVs (C segment), Stellantis said.
The group’s CEO Antonio Filosa as well as ministers Roland Lescure (economy) and Sébastien Martin (industry) went to the Mulhouse factory on Tuesday to present the project. “France perfectly illustrates Stellantis’ global strategy (…) where our global size, our detailed local knowledge and our brands combine to meet and exceed the expectations of our customers,” declared the Italian boss of the group, quoted in a press release.
Staff representatives said they were very satisfied. “It’s like the sun today, the employees are happy. We’ve been waiting for a project for years and now they’ve announced three. It’s extraordinary,” FO Stellantis Mulhouse secretary Deborah Schorr told the press.
“Central role of Mulhouse”
“It’s too early to say what it represents in terms of jobs. But our priority is jobs, jobs, jobs. We will fight to ensure the future of the site is assured over a decade and beyond,” she added.
The investment in research and development, of more than 500 million euros, will be used in particular to develop the “STLA One” technological platform, a sort of common specifications. This global and modular technical architecture will serve as the basis within four years for more than 30 new models of different sizes and engines, and will replace five current platforms.
This unification, announced on May 21 by Antonio Filosa as part of his strategic plan, aims to improve the competitiveness of Stellantis. The group urgently needs to rationalize its production tools after having suffered colossal losses in 2025 and losing market share in Europe.
By 2030, the manufacturer wants to produce 50% of its volumes on three global platforms, with up to 70% common components. This announcement confirms Peugeot’s place among the four global brands that the Italian-French-American group will now favor. The other three are the Italian Fiat and the American Jeep and Ram.
The CFE-CGC union welcomed in a press release “the central role of Mulhouse in future projects, even if strong expectations remain regarding volumes, the sustainability of the activity and the associated social guarantees”. Management is responding with this investment to employees in France who fear that Stellantis will give priority to its American activities over Europe. Antonio Filosa had in fact announced in May a plan to reduce its European production capacities by 800,000 units.
