France Revising Auto Industry Support Groups’ Mission

PARIS – France is reorganizing the government-funded organizations that support the auto industry, asking its biggest automotive competitive cluster to pay more attention to the development side of research and development and turn research into concrete results.

Moveo says it will change from an “incubator of projects” to “incubator of products” in the 2013-2018 plan that will be announced in June. Moveo will aim more at meeting market demands and align more of its activity with European research.

Since its founding in 2007, Moveo has approved 315 non-competitive research projects with a total budget of €1.3 billion ($1.7 billion), including government contributions. The organization’s 348 members include Renault, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Valeo, Faurecia, academic and research institutions and 190 small and medium-size companies.

Another state organization, the PFA platform for the auto industry, unites suppliers and auto makers. Its goal is to be the single lobbying voice for the industry in France and Europe.

The PFA was formed in 2009 because auto makers and suppliers in France have separate organizations, the CCFA and FIEV, respectively, each with their own agendas. When government worries over diminishing auto industry employment reached a critical point, it created the PFA to try to get the supply chain to work together.

Last August, the government charged the organization with developing a common vision of the future of production, strategy and technology and their effects on employment, as well as monitoring R&D for electrified cars, good purchasing practices and helping suppliers grow internationally.

A third organization, VeDeCom, was created in 2011 as a Moveo offshoot to develop technologies for electric vehicles, V2X vehicle-communication systems and new ways such vehicles could be used as sustainable transportation systems.

VeDeCom has hired more than 20 young researchers so far, according to Moveo, and is associated with other French institutes, including SystemX, Jules Verne, EfficaCity and competitive clusters in Germany, Japan and elsewhere.

Moveo last year approved 47 new projects with a total budget of €237 million ($306 million), as well as three new academic programs to train engineers for future technologies. Moveo also was involved in commercial operations, helping seven companies get refinancing.

In the future, however, it is under the gun to produce more than research papers, and its transition is aimed in part at reducing its reliance on government money and getting more private-sector support.

“We will continue, of course, to mobilize our resources for the heart of our business, research and development, while continuing our role of bringing together the players in the automobile industry,” Moveo President Jean-Claude Hanus says.

“But we must also resolutely pursue the realization of the new objectives that will be given to us in our new performance contract for 2018, which will ask us to create more value.”