French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday unveiled an eight-billion-euro (8.78 billion U.S. dollars) rescue plan to help the recovery of the domestic auto industry hit hard by the anti-coronavirus lockdown. The plan focuses on the production of environmentally friendly vehicles.
"The state will provide more than eight billion euros in aid to the sector," Macron said. "In return, the car manufacturers have committed to relocate value-added production in France and to consolidate and maintain all industrial production on our sites."
The president, who met with industry bosses early on Tuesday, said the "historic plan," which aims to "face a historic situation," was based on a support package and a scrappage scheme to shift towards less polluting vehicles. This massive investment aims to bolster research, encourage innovation and support the domestic production of high-tech electric and hybrid vehicles.
"We need to defend our industry and make France Europe's top producer of clean vehicles by increasing output to more than one million electric and hybrid cars per year over the next five years," said Macron.
"Bankruptcies should be avoided at all costs. We have to negotiate plans to adjust the activity, sometimes to reduce it, and accept short-time working," he said following a visit to a Valeo car parts factory in northern France.