At the Stellantis site in La Janais, near Rennes, the teams are ready. This factory was chosen by the Franco-Italian-American giant to manufacture the new C5 Aircross. Presented last month at the Paris motor show, this family SUV from Citroën must be launched on the market in the second half of 2025. In La Janais, Stellantis has invested 160 million euros to deploy a new platform. Called STLA Medium, it has the particularity of being “multi-energy”: it allows the production of electric cars, but also its variants with hybrid and thermal engines.
To do this, the La Janais site has acquired new workshops. One is dedicated to plastic injection. In particular, he is able to manufacture his own bumpers on site. Another is dedicated to shoeing, where the various metal elements of the car are welded by some 459 robots. The Stellantis staff remained faithful to its logic of cost reduction. Some 361 robots dedicated to shoeing come from its Sochaux factory and have been refurbished.
These new means of production should make it possible to breathe new life into the La Janais factory. It only produces the old version of the C5 Aircross since the cessation, last month, of the manufacture of the Peugeot 5008. Stellantis assures: the production of the future C5 Aircross “offers employees of the Rennes site business prospects at least until 2030”.
At a press conference this Monday, Carlos Tavares welcomed the “assets” from La Janais. He praised “the ability to question oneself” of this factory “during the last ten years”. That said, he warned that his future was linked to sales of Citroën's new SUV. “Activity in this factory, here in Rennes, depends on the commercial success of the future C5 Aircross”he warned. According to Carlos Tavares, this vehicle has everything to find its customers. “Now, will she be successful? I hope so, I think sohe continued. But in fact we don't know anything about it…” According to the manager, the factory will have to manufacture “between 50,000 and 80,000 cars » to be profitable.
Janais has greatly shrunk
Under these conditions, Carlos Tavares refuses to give “guarantees” on employment, and in particular concerning the resumption, this summer, of the 230 temporary workers who will leave La Janais next January. The announcement of these job cuts last month caused great excitement among the unions. They particularly fear a tightening of working conditions. CGT secretary of the site, Fabrice Lucas then denounced the rates “very high”sources of “numerous work stoppages”.
Inaugurated by Charles de Gaulle in 1961, the Citroën factory in La Janais has significantly shrunk in recent years. It now only has 1,800 employees on permanent contracts, compared to more than 12,000 in 2004. On the production side, the site has only manufactured 75,000 cars in 2023. Compare to the 348,000 vehicles which left the factory 20 years ago. its assembly lines.
