Spain will take a key role in Groupe PSA's electrification strategy, announced by the French manufacturer to coincide with the World Climate Summit (COP25) in Madrid, thanks to the installation of multi-energy manufacturing platforms in its three plants in Zaragoza, Vigo and Madrid.

The COP25 has confirmed what was already common knowledge: the response to climate change cannot be delayed any longer. The commitment of the big manufacturers in the automobile market has multiplied in recent years, and they have made the significant investment that was required to adapt their plants to producing electric and hybrid vehicles. In Spain, Groupe PSA is the only one prepared to manufacture 100% electric cars in all its factories starting in 2020.

Electric version of all its models
In the year currently ending, the group has taken its first step by incorporating an electrified version in all its new launches, so by 2025, all models of its four brands will have a zero-emissions version. Its factories currently already produce nine models with the DGT's 0 label.

Producing 100% electric vehicles in the same factories that make automobiles with other motorization systems posed a major technological challenge and also required a significant investment. PSA resolved this by creating two types of flexible multi-energy platforms, CMP and EMP2, with which to manufacture vehicles with different motorization systems on the same assembly line. This achievement makes it possible to meet demand in a flexible way without affecting the production chains.

“Our electrification strategy is based on flexible and modular multi-energy platforms that make it possible to develop gasoline, diesel, 100% electric or hybrid plug-in models and thus be able to adapt seamlessly to the customers' demands”, explains Alexandre Guignard, global director of the Low Emission Vehicles Business Unit for Groupe PSA.

Two new models for Madrid and Vigo
“Our production centres in Spain have been transformed to integrate the new platforms”, says Juan Antonio Muñoz Codina, industrial general manager for the group in Spain and Portugal. Currently, in parallel with fuel motorization, the Vigo plant already produces the electric version of the Peugeot e-2008, while the Zaragoza plant manufactures the Opel Corsa-e. Looking to the future, the Madrid plant has already installed the CMP platform to produce an electric model which has yet to be unveiled, but which serves to allay fears of a possible closure sparked by the recent announcement of the merger between the PSA and FCA groups.

Electrification will also reach light commercial vehicles as of 2021, when the Vigo plant will begin production of a new generation of these automobiles to be developed on the EMP2 platform. In addition, the Zaragoza plant will shortly begin to assemble batteries, a task that is currently only done in Vigo. The electrification strategy also includes the installation of 2,000 charging points at the start of 2020, with which to completely cover the dealers' network in the group's four brands.

Emissions savings
According to estimates, the electrification strategy presented by the group will mean a 223-million-ton reduction in CO2 emissions into the atmosphere between 2012 and 2025.

“Today, nine 100% electric and plug-in hybrid models can now be purchased in the brands in the group's commercial network: Peugeot, Citroën, DS and Opel, with a wide range of services that respond to all the concerns the customers raise when buying an electrified vehicle", says Christophe Mandon, General Director of Commerce at Groupe PSA in Spain and Portugal.