Overview

• The AESC gigafactory in Douai — financed with €1.3 billion of public support — employs 650 people and aims to hire 350 more by December 2025.
• Its lithium-ion cells are already equipping the new Renault 5 electric vehicles and the plant could supply batteries for up to 200,000 cars annually.
• Macron vowed to “never give up” on ecological progress, highlighting two million jobs created and a fourfold reduction in emissions since 2017.
• Under the 2017 Renouveau du Bassin Minier plan, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region has seen €1.3 billion in investment, 2,200 new industrial jobs and the renovation of 15,500 energy-inefficient homes.
• He warned that recent parliamentary moves to scrap low-emission zones and loosen net-zero land artificialization requirements threaten France’s green gains.