At a time when production of niche vehicles is growing, some of Europe’s traditional niche assemblers are missing out.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
France’s Matra symbolises the plight of specialty manufacturers. The Dutch commercial auctioneer Troostwijk has been hired by French group Lagardere to auction off 3,000 parts at the Romorantin plant of its bankrupt subsidiary Matra Automobiles. The auction takes place on December 3rd and 4th.
In June, Italian coachbuilder Pininfarina began to acquire Matra Automobiles’ engineering, prototyping and testing operations.
Lagardere had been trying to exit automotive operations for some time prior to the bankruptcy last summer.
It’s a sadly familiar end to an unusual bit of history. When, in 1984, Renault introduced its first segment-busting MPV, the Espace I, Matra had a big hand in its conception and execution — from the idea of a high-cab people carrier to the plastic body panels used in the first three generations of the Espace.
Matra assembled all three generations at Romorantin, near Paris for nearly 20 years, producing 60,000 vehicles per year at peak of production.
Espace IV, launched in late 2002, still rules the MPV roost in Europe, with sales again around the 60,000 mark. The latest generation’s quirky “female” looks and acres of greenhouse continue Renault’s tradition of doing things differently and doing them well. However, Matra’s role in the enduring success story ended with the new generation.
Renault took assembly of Espace IV in-house to its Sandouville, France, plant where its P5 platform siblings, the Vel Satis and Laguna II, are made. Platform commonality and a more conventional body structure dictated that an extra line at Sandouville would make more sense than continuing outsourced assembly.
Instead, Renault handed Matra assembly of Avantime, which began production in 2001. That’s when things began to go rapidly downhill for Matra.
Renault hoped Avantime, a radical 2-door MPV Coupé, would bust the luxury sedan segment in the way Espace galvanized the idea of a station wagon.
Renault was looking for sales around 20,000 annually, but the project was pulled after two abortive marketing campaigns. Annual production in 2002 was under 6,000 units.
The combined impact of losing Espace and the commercial failure of Avantime was more than the company could take. In mid-2003, Romorantin stopped cars and Matra Automobiles was closed.
The sale ends a name in niche assembly at a time when overall volumes in niche vehicles are growing. But the traditional niche assemblers are not benefiting.
As the forthcoming report “The New Production Chain,” from Deutsche Bank and AutoBusiness shows, the drive among OEMs for high-volume flexible plants, with the growing use of platforms, supplier parks and modular assembly, is rapidly changing the production chain.
PSA, Renault and Volkswagen have all decided to assemble their new convertibles in-house. There’s a danger that traditional niche assemblers, which in good years have accounted for up to half a million units a year in Europe, will be squeezed out.
– SupplierBusiness.com
