The automobile manufacturer is undertaking a reorganization of its engineering division to strengthen its competitiveness in the face of the rise of Chinese manufacturers.
Renault announced, Wednesday June 24, a voluntary departure plan in France concerning 800 engineers, mainly in Ile-de-France, as part of a reorganization of its engineering division intended to face Chinese competition. Of the 5,500 engineers that the group has in France, these 800 departures will take place by “the end of 2027”, the manufacturer announced during a telephone press briefing on Wednesday evening. At the same time, it plans to recruit 150 to 200 new engineers on permanent contracts, mainly in the fields of software and electrification.
Objective: strengthen competitiveness against China
The reorganization, presented to the social partners during the day, aims to “simplify” the organization and to fragment functions less to gain “speed of execution”. “Chinese manufacturers are significantly increasing their market shares in Europe: it was less than 3% in 2024, it is 8.8% at the end of May,” underlined the group’s global head of technologies, Philippe Brunet. “These market shares are explained by products with significant technological content and also very competitive costs (…). We must be able to be competitive in relation to that,” he added.
To support this transformation, Renault is planning a 200,000-hour training plan intended to improve the skills of its engineers, as well as internal mobility. The group confirmed in April its intention to reduce the number of engineering positions in its global workforce by 15% to 20%, according to information from Ouest-France. It currently has 11,000 engineers worldwide, half of whom are in France, out of a total workforce of 100,000 people.
