The French government has told Renault it must keep home plants operating as a condition of receiving €5 Billion state aid.
France wants it to remain the group’s global centre for engineering, research, innovation and development, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Wednesday.
Speaking in the Senate, he said the government was particularly concerned about maintaining the Flins plant, Reuters reported.
Renault has been struggling with falling sales and is looking at a restructuring plan to save money and maximise efficiency with some models being killed off due to low demand.
As part of an alliance with Nissan, the French parent also wants to use the Japanese assembly plants to build Renault models and there has been talk of Sunderland getting new models transferred from a Spanish plant which Renault is said to want to close.
