Small streams make a big river: from evolution to transformation
Air quality and energy efficiency have been at the heart of our business for over 15 years, inspiring us to continually introduce breakthrough technologies for fuel economy, energy recovery and emissions reduction. Every year, our engineers rise to the complexity of new and evolving regulations, in new markets and with an ever-widening range of automotive clients and mobility service providers.
At Faurecia, we’ve embraced electrification as our next ‘technical’ challenge, identifying two strategic areas that combine a focus on sustainable solutions for the next ten years, as well as promising technologies for the future. First we’re harnessing research efforts, team expertise and technical development to improve the energy efficiency and performance of electric vehicle batteries.
Secondly, we are investing in ways to industrialize fuel cell technology, a clean and efficient way to power mobility, particularly long-distance travel.
Beyond electrification, we’re also developing clean mobility solutions for a much wider panel of mobility players – from commercial fleet operators, the high-horsepower engine market (for example marine) to environmental and mobility managers in municipalities.
Adopting this strategic focus on clean mobility has been hugely transformative for our business and very motivating for teams worldwide. It’s a message that resonates strongly with both internal and external stakeholders. We’ve been adapting our organisation: building new teams like Zero Emissions, Clean Cities and Fleets through emerging internal talent with an entrepreneurial mindset and recruiting in people who bring us new areas of expertise.
We’ve not been afraid to launch Faurecia into areas where we don’t have all the answers. For our work on fuel cell technology we sought out experienced partners like Stelia Aerospace Composites, the CEA (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energies Commission) as well as start-up French technology companies like Ad-Venta for their specific expertise. Faurecia’s open innovation ecosystem that links us with academic, scientific and industrial partners enables to go further and faster in identifying, exploring and industrialising new solutions – whether energy management systems, innovative materials technologies, new catalytics processes or sensors and applications for monitoring emissions.
Identifying innovative technologies is one thing, but you need to measure their impact to prove their worth. Over the past two years for each of our clean mobility areas, we’ve demonstrated in project mode the value they can bring. This has enabled us to win first orders for both battery and fuel cell vehicles with international OEMs, as well as begin pilot programs with commercial fleet and municipalities to assess digital services that monitor real time emissions and foster eco-mobility.
Our journey in sustainable mobility began 20 years ago. The evolutions in cleaner transportation that we’ve helped develop along the way have prepared us for the significant challenges ahead. We see electrification, along with other automotive megatrends, as an opportunity - we’re embracing to harness the technical expertise and talent of our teams in supporting all stakeholders to find new solutions for clean energy and mobility.
