Project abandoned with Peugeot Citroën: Couillard persist and sign

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Philippe Couillard persists and signs : there has never been a project of factory of electric cars with Peugeot-Citroen, at least, none of the presented to the government of Quebec.

Marc-André Gagnon

Saturday 24 February 2018 16:24

UPDATE
Saturday 24 February 2018 16:29

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WASHINGTON | Philippe Couillard persists and signs : there has never been a project of factory of electric cars with Peugeot-Citroen, at least, none of the presented to the government of Quebec.

• READ ALSO : Project electric automobiles with Peugeot-Citroën: Quebec turns its back to a factory of$600 Million

Other people have argued just the opposite. As reported in our pages last Friday, a source european well the file says that the project was so advanced that even the plans of the factory valued at$ 600 Million were loans.

“No. No. This is not true. There are no plans to plant. This was not a factory project”, reiterated the prime minister Philippe Couillard, when raised on this subject by The Newspaper, in the margins of his visit to Washington, Saturday.

After the announcement a large pump made in Davos, switzerland, two years ago, only a feasibility study, never completed, according to the prime minister, took place in connection with this project.

“The partners have decided together that this was not commercially feasible”, reiterated Mr. Couillard.

Hope

For the mayor of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Alain Laplante, the project seemed so real that his municipality had reserved a plot of land of$ 6 Million for construction of the future plant. A purchase option of $ 100,000 on this land had been taken to this end.

“This project was very advanced for us. It would have been major. Believed to have been selected,” said the mayor Laplante, this week.

“There has never been plant project filed with the Quebec government, ensures that, Mr. Couillard. I’ll say it clearly : is this that people had ambitions, ideas? Maybe. But it was necessary first to see if it was feasible commercially.”

Despite the abandonment of that project with the French car manufacturer, Mr. Couillard holds out hope to the effect that Quebec will have other opportunities in the field of the electric car. He does not believe that Quebec has lost face in this adventure. “It is the opposite. If we had maintained a project commercially non-viable, then, we would have lost face.”