Faurecia revs up localization efforts in China

Faurecia is revving up localization efforts to get better involved in the Chinese vehicle market, said a senior executive of the French auto parts supplier.

Faurecia is a top 10 automotive supplier globally, focusing mainly on seating, interiors, clean mobility, and electronics.

François Tardif, executive vice-president of Faurecia Asia, said the company realized around a decade ago that it wanted to work with Chinese carmakers and then started to develop and design products for the country.

"We have now strong engineering and innovation teams here in China, which allows us to capture all the trends of the Chinese market," said Tardif at the Shanghai auto show in late April .

Faurecia is a company of Group Forvia, which also includes Hella. Today, Forvia has more than 28,000 employees at over 80 sites in more than 30 cities in the country.

"I can give an example: almost 18 months ago, we decided to launch our innovation activity, called ‘Cockpit for Future’, and focus on designing products for China."

Tardif said the company has strong confidence in the development of the Chinese market.

"In China, we foresee sustainable growth, probably between 3 to 5 percent. Over a long enough time, this growth is important," he said.

"The domestic market itself may have at least a 3 percent range, but there is also a new market linked to exports that is developing incredibly."

China exported 3.11 million vehicles last year, up 54.4 percent year-on-year, overtaking Germany as the world’s second largest vehicle exporter, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Faurecia has been working with Chinese carmakers’ design offices in Europe in terms of in industrial design an helping them to understand regional regulations and consumers’ preference.

"We have a duty to help them. If the cockpits are not well accepted, we also bring a new value to Chinese OEMs (original equipment manufacturers)," said Tardif.