2023-12-17 20:00:00
We had high hopes in 2021, when Carlos Tavarès, boss of PSA, announced that the Douvrin site was going to produce the future generation of the EB engine. Yes, the timing chain evolution of the Puretech block so much criticized for its lack of reliability. It will actually come out of an Opel factory in Hungary. Because the Stellantis site in the North is being converted, not without considerably shrinking (and losing jobs), into batteries for electric cars via ACC (Automotive Cells Company), the union created with TotalEnergies/Saft and Mercedes-Benz. The European decision to ban the sale of machines burning fossil fuels from 2035 was crucial.
From now on, the Stellantis site in Douvrin is completely oriented towards the production of batteries, which will ultimately be its only activity. Here, the ACC gigafactory.
At the end of 2025, the last thermal engine, a belt-driven Puretech, should be produced: the end of an industrial epic that began in 1969 with Renault. At the time, the latter joined forces with Peugeot to create Française de Mécanique, an entity intended to manufacture very modern mechanics while reducing costs. The idea of this merger came from Pierre-Louis Dreyfus, then boss of Régie Renault. He understands that his brand is becoming too small, particularly in terms of its financial resources, and too isolated to respond to the challenges of the Common Market. Especially since in 1963, Peugeot and Citroën, establishing a similar observation, announced their association… which failed.
On October 15, 1971, the Française de Mécanique factory produced its first engine, an the Talbot Samba, the BX…
This decided Dreyfus to approach the Sochaux firm, and this time, it first led to an agreement signed on April 22, 1966. These two knew each other well, having already collaborated: Peugeot bought transfer machines from Renault in 1955 and Renault bought tools for the 4L from Peugeot. With this new agreement, Peugeot and Renault will jointly acquire raw materials and parts, but also establish cross-manufacturing. One will produce for the other and vice versa. For example, the brake discs for the Peugeot J7 will be made by Renault. There are even plans to assemble Renaults in the Peugeot factory in Mulhouse, but this will not take place.
Still, the association works well, and results in facilities for shared use between the two. Peugeot is developing its high-speed test track at Belchamp, which Renault can use, and Renault that at Lardy (skid tests, dust tunnel), open to Peugeot. The two also have a very cold testing center in Sweden, in Kiruna. All this is so fluid that Dreyfus thinks bigger: the creation of a joint subsidiary with Sochaux to manufacture engines. Peugeot throws aside its proverbial caution and accepts. This is how Française de Mécanique was born in 1969. However, the two brands did not change their financial structure to build the factory in Douvrin, near Béthune.
The Française de Mécanique factory was built in 1969. It still exists, but has lost the grandeur of its prosperous period.
It still costs a billion francs: loans will be taken out and state aid granted (10,000 francs per job created, in particular). The factory then began to emerge, and in 1971, it produced its first engines. These are the X, studied by Peugeot for its little 104 which inaugurates it. Renault must of course use it, but in a larger car whose development has lagged behind: the R14, launched in 1976. In the meantime, the second block, V-shaped and also designed by Peugeot, was launched in 1974 on the 504 coupe/cabriolet. The third new engine appeared in 1977, on the Renault 20 TS: the Douvrin, due to Renault. La Française de Mécanique is therefore efficient: on the one hand, its engines are of good quality, on the other, it allows manufacturers great economies of scale.
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In 1974, the V6 PRV appeared, the second engine manufactured at Française de Mécanique. The help of Volvo, which is very present in the US, will be decisive in its profitability.
All these blocks will continually evolve, allowing the next one to be launched only in 1986: the TU, which will only be used by PSA. Ten years later, two new engines appeared: the D block, reserved for Renault (we will see this small 1.1 liter 4-cylinder notably in the Twingo), and the replacement for the PRV. This V6, called ES at Peugeot (which designed it) and L at Renault, will be the last engine used jointly by the two manufacturers.
In 1977, the Renault 20 TS welcomed the third engine manufactured by La Française de Mécanique, the “Douvrin”.
Because they, from 1974, will no longer get along so well. A major event will strain relations between the two French manufacturers: the takeover of Citroën by Peugeot. Renault takes a very dim view of this, its relations with the double chevron having always been execrable.
In 1986, the Citroën AX introduced the TU engine, the 4th manufactured in Douvrin and the first not to be used by Renault.
This freedom will allow the lion to associate in 1998 with another coat of arms for new engines: Ford. From this union will emerge in 2003 the DV, a diesel, first offered in 1.4 l, then in 1.6 l and finally in 1.5 l. Another union takes place, this time between Peugeot and BMW, which gives the EP engine, gasoline, in 1.4 l and 1.6 l.
The last new block manufactured in Douvrin appeared in 2013: it was the EB Turbo, the supercharged Puretech (the atmo version was produced elsewhere) so problematic because of its submerged timing belt. With it, the factory passes the milestone of the 50 millionth engine produced in 2021.
The 3-cylinder EB, better known under the name Puretech, will be the last manufactured in Douvrin.
That said, in 2013, Renault withdrew from Française de Mécanique, selling its 50% to PSA. Paradoxical that the initiator of the joint venture is the first to get out of it!
With the decline of thermal power decided at the European level, the only solution for survival at the Douvrin site was to switch to electric, becoming a “gigafactory”, a pompous name designating a unit manufacturing batteries for electric cars. A page is turning, France is also seeing its automobile production fall irremediably…
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