Last Friday, car manufacturing group Stellantis announced another cut in its engineering crew at the Opel Research & Development center in Rüsselsheim. This means that only 1,000 R&D jobs remain near Opel’s general headquarters in Germany.
In other countries, however, Stellantis plans to hire new engineering talent, including some 2,000 in the U.S. and 700 in France. Stellantis explains the move to align the number of people in its R&D centers with the activities and importance of those centers within the group.
Rüsselsheim
The restructuring of the German R&D site, dedicated to the development of Opel and Vauxhall cars and other ‘transversal’ activities within the group, aims at reinforcing the competitiveness of the German part of the group,” Stellantis says in a press release.
When Opel was taken over by (then) PSA in 2017, some 7,000 people were still working at Opel’s Rüsselsheim R&D facilities. Many have left since, and not so long ago, Stellantis also temporarily closed the important test facilities at Dudenhofen, east of Frankfurt.
The development alarmed unions and regional governments in Hessen, who see the downsizing as another erosion of Opel’s German engineering base. Once a symbol of technical excellence, the Dudenhofen proving ground has hosted testing not only for Opel but for other carmakers since its opening in 1966.
The ‘Tech Center’ in Rüsselsheim will nevertheless remain one of the anchor points of Stellantis’ R&D. In addition to further developing Opel and Vauxhall cars within the group, the center will also be responsible for lighting development, AI applications in production, ADAS system development, and battery development.
Sochaux
Stellantis has also announced an additional €120 million investment in its historic site in Sochaux (east of France), the cradle of the Peugeot brand. The most important investment will be a new paint shop, almost completely automated and decarbonized.
The new paint shop will be fully electrified, with no gas power, and will consume only half the water it uses now. There will only be one heating moment in the whole painting process, points out Julien Risset, the paint shop supervisor, who emphasizes that “painting a car represents some 80% of CO2 emissions in a car factory”.
The Sochaux plant produces about 1,050 cars per day and is one of Stellantis’ largest car-production facilities. Worldwide, Stellantis has 42 car factories, of which five are situated in France. Since 2022, Stellantis has already invested €200 million in Sochaux, mainly to automate the logistics flow.
