The Stellantis plant (ex-PSA) in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin) intends to relaunch thanks to the production of the new Peugeot 308 whose brand announced the launch on Thursday, we learned from management and unions .
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The Mulhouse site was chosen to manufacture the new version of the model, with production ramping up by the end of the first half of the year, given the marketing schedule, his spokesperson told AFP.
Peugeot plans to make the vehicle available for purchase next fall and to open orders at the end of this semester.
The site of 5,000 permanent employees saw its production fall to 50,000 vehicles last year (DS7 and Peugeot 508) against 230,000 in 2019 and has been accumulating days not worked since the start of the year.
"
The site was weakened
"
Thanks to the new 308, the site can be projected with “
visibility
” over several years, the unions believe.
"
It is the arrival of the mass-market vehicle that we badly needed, it ensures a few years of the future
", according to Deborah Schorr, manager of the FO union of the site.
For Laurent Gautherat, CFE-CGC manager, without the 308, “
the site was weakened
”.
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Establishing volume forecasts remains "
difficult
" due in particular to the health crisis, said the spokesperson for the manufacturer.
However, the site "
hopes
" that the new 308 "will
meet the same success
" as the previous one.
It has been produced at an average rate of 175,000 vehicles per year in the neighboring Sochaux (Doubs) plant since 2013.
Initially in April, the Mulhouse site will return to a work rate of five days a week on its single assembly team, instead of four in recent weeks.
Then the site aims to appeal to employees from other sites and "
in addition
" to temporary workers, explained the spokesperson.
"
Several hundred temporary workers
" could be recruited thanks to the new production, according to M.Gautherat.