Valeo CEO Says China Production Process Costs About 35% Lower Than Europe

On November 5, Christophe Périllat, CEO of French auto parts supplier Valeo, said in an interview in Paris that the cost of various production processes Valeo has examined in China is about 35% lower than in Europe. Périllat said Valeo is drawing on the experience of China's auto industry to streamline operations and expand its business areas, no longer limited to traditional customers such as Renault and General Motors. Valeo currently has more than 20,000 engineers worldwide, of whom about 4,300 work in China. Valeo has accelerated prototype development and component optimization while reducing management layers. In Europe, making a prototype for a new component usually takes about a month, while in China prototype parts can be delivered in the evening and put on the test bench the next morning. Périllat said that about a decade ago new products were usually developed first in Europe and then promoted to global markets, but today more and more industrial technology breakthroughs are emerging from China and spreading to other regions. Since taking the helm of Valeo in 2022, Périllat has scaled back the company's operations in Europe, closing plants in countries such as France and Germany while opening new factories in China, India and the United States. He has cut about 10,000 jobs, and the company now has about 100,000 employees worldwide. He is also pushing the company into areas such as defense and exploring the use of cooling technology for data centers.