Groupe PSA, the second largest car manufacturer in Europe has announced a joint venture with Nidec, the leading comprehensive motor manufacturer, to create “Nidec-PSA emotors”. Carlos Tavares, Chief Executive Officer of Groupe PSA and MM Shigenobu Nagamori, Chief Executive Officer of Nidec, endorsed today the establishment of the new project dedicated to the design, development, manufacture and sale of electric traction motors.
As an anticipation of energy transition towards a cleaner mobility, electrification seems to be the key to environmental issues with a well to wheel approach. OEMs, hence, are accelerating their shift towards electrified vehicle technologies. Along with this trend, electrification of automobiles has been expanding and the market of electric motor for automotive is foreseen to double its size. Nidec is renowned to be active in this trend developing products with its superior motor expertise.
Forty engineers have already been recruited and joined the JV headquarters in Carrières sous Poissy, near Paris. By end of summer, thirty more engineers are expected to join this site where a dedicated R&D area has been dedicated. They will design new traction electric motors to be produced in Tremery plant in France, and integrated in Mild-hybrid (“MHEV”), Electric Vehicles (“EV”) and Plug-in Hybrid (“PHEV”) vehicles.
With a strategic importance of high-performance traction motor for electrified vehicles, Groupe PSA and Nidec will invest 220 million Euros to set-up this JV. This will support the electrification push, as 100% of Groupe PSA vehicle range will include an electrified offering by 2025, especially that electric vehicles are projected to make up 16 percent of all car sales by then.
When it comes to the Gulf region, government bodies in some countries such as the UAE have already started paving the way to the acquisition of zero-carbon electric cars by launching new incentives that make the transition from fossil-fuel powered cars to electric easier including green bank loans, green insurance plans, attractive EV car prices and green registration of vehicles. Other government programs call for up to 10% of car fleets of federal ministries and agencies to be electric vehicles. Groupe PSA is hot-weather testing its electric range for the region and is expected to be on the road by 2020.