Agence Régionale de Développement Paris Île-de-France

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Tomorrow's automotive industry

The birthplace of the French automotive industry, Paris Region draws its success from its tremendous capacity for innovation which started with the early car makers Citroën, Levassor, Panhard and Renault, combined with a highly-skilled workforce.
Paris Region offers a unique development environment for international companies in the automotive sector. It is one of the few regions of the world to have two major global manufacturers: PSA Peugeot Citroën and Renault. Most of the world's main car part manufacturers are also located in Paris Region.

Main players

While Paris Region remains a major industrial centre with the factories in Flins (Renault), Poissy and Aulnay-sous-Bois (PSA), the region is also home to Renault and PSA's global decision-making centres and has become their leading research hub.
The car manufacturers rely on the presence of a very diverse network of part manufacturers and suppliers, both French (particularly Valeo and Faurecia) and foreign (Bosch, Johnson Controls, Denso, Lear, Delphi, etc).
And finally, major corporations, SMEs and state-owned R&D laboratories have teamed up to create the Mov'eo competitiveness cluster. One of the world's very first competitiveness clusters, Mov'eo represents 70% of French automotive R&D.

Research and training

70% of researchers working in the French automotive industry are in Paris Region, supported by a solid structure of public-sector research labs and universities. 17,500 people are employed in automotive R&D in Paris Region.
Paris Region has a highly-skilled workforce active in a wide range of fields including mechanical engineering, electricity and automotive manufacturing. More than 200 institutions provide over 4,500 students with initial training and 3,000 automotive engineers graduate every year.
A number of prestigious Grandes Écoles are located in the Region, including ESTACA (École Supérieure des Techniques Aéronautiques et de Construction Aéronautique) and ENSMP (École Nationale Supérieure du Pétrole et des Moteurs). A number of other engineering schools also offer automotive-related courses, including Centrale, the École des Mines de Paris, CNAM, EPF, CEST/SupMéca and ESME-SUDRIA (École Supérieure de Mécanique et d'Électricité).

Paris Region is also a testing ground for electric and hybrid vehicles. Autolib' is a major car-sharing initiative in Europe: 3000 electric vehicles will be deployed in Paris and the inner suburbs and more than 1000 recharging points will be available, including 700 in Paris.