As the Group approaches its second anniversary, can you share some highlights from 2023? 

In 2023, we celebrated another year as FORVIA. The collaboration of our dedicated teams proved instrumental in achieving milestones and securing new high-value contracts, affirming the attractiveness of our sustainable, safe, customized and affordable solutions. A significant achievement was the definition of six core values that are the cornerstones of our shared culture: drive, accountability, teamwork, agility, respect and open-mindedness. Our POWER25 strategy also gained momentum, with three industrial sites and an R&D center dedicated to future mobility in hydrogen, sustainable materials, and advanced electronics inaugurated within just four months. This rapid progress underscores how much stronger we are together.

Technology and sustainability are your guiding principles. How does that translate into action?

FORVIA aims to address future mobility needs with sustainable and innovative solutions that benefit our customers, consumers and the planet. Climate change affects everything in a vehicle: powertrains, design, architecture, materials. It calls for a rapid and profound transformation of industry players and a great capacity for innovation to meet these challenges. Our journey to net zero by 2045 is well underway, with a focus on energy efficiency and renewable energy in our plants. We are one year ahead of our planned schedule to reach CO₂ neutrality by 2025, and have committed to reducing our emissions by 45% by 2030. This involves rethinking our architecture to make systems more modular and upgradable, using fewer and lighter components, developing a range of cutting-edge low-carbon materials within our MATERI’ACT activity.

What about zero-emission mobility?

Future mobility will be both battery electric and hydrogen-powered. FORVIA already offers a comprehensive technology range for electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles suitable for every electrification strategy, in all regions. We believe in hydrogen as the only credible complementary alternative to battery electrification, and 2023 saw us continue to drive the development of hydrogen mobility. This included the commission of Europe’s first mass production plant for hydrogen storage tanks in Allenjoie, France, and the inauguration of SymphonHy, Europe’s largest integrated site producing hydrogen fuel cells, through our joint venture with Michelin and Stellantis.

Another megatrend is AI. What’s the potential?

AI will bring disruptions in numerous areas over the next three to five years: engineering, design, operations. We are already capitalizing on AI throughout our value chain, from optimizing R&D to streamlining operations to providing cutting-edge features for customers. It helps us boost efficiency, makes us more competitive by streamlining our development timelines, reduces the necessary testing, and enables us to better forecast future demand – allowing for adjustments in our inventory. On scope 3 more specifically, AI enables us to accelerate time-to-market and maintain price competitiveness in sustainable materials, which are more costly to develop. Through the creation of adaptive formulas, AI also ensures the stability of these materials despite variability in raw resources.

Talking about zero emissions and digital innovation, a market that comes to mind is China.

Absolutely. The automotive industry’s center of gravity has shifted to Asia: first and foremost China, which is a major player in the electric vehicle market and at the forefront of digital and connected cockpit technologies. FORVIA has been present there for 30 years. Today, we collaborate with over 40 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in China. Among the top 20 Chinese OEMs, 19 are FORVIA clients. We also support these OEMs in their global development, such as in Thailand, where we have recently launched the construction of a new seat assembly plant with our partner BYD.

Our activities in China are at the vanguard, both from a business and environmental perspective. Take the Electronics megaplant we inaugurated in Fengcheng this year, which is our Group’s first net zero plant and an industry-leading example of sustainable production.

What’s your outlook for the next few years?

2023 confirmed that the creation of FORVIA has paved the way for profitable growth and strong value creation. We are now better equipped to navigate market challenges through an extended geographic and customer reach, and have reduced exposure to the internal combustion engine. One of the main challenges ahead is reaching our 2030 target for scope 3. We have six years – two generations of cars – to transform powertrains, architecture, materials. This is a challenging but exciting task for our engineers and all our teams, which motivates us and makes us proud. I’m confident FORVIA will achieve its goals, and I would like to thank everyone who is working in or with the Group to advance our mission: We pioneer technology for mobility experiences that matter to people.