Novares, a major automotive plastics supplier, has recently inaugurated its newly built skill center for powertrain products at its site in Lens, France, in the presence of the company’s CEO Pierre Boulet. This was made possible thanks to the support of the Hauts-de-France Region.
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From left to right: Luc DORNIER - Product Development Senior Vice President Novares Group, Pierre BOULET - CEO Novares Group, Luc MESSIEN - ARIA Hauts-De-France |
The center is one of eight in Novares’ global network of skill centers across the globe and employs 160 powertrain specialists who design lighter and greener engine parts for the automotive industry. It is one of Novares’ three powertrain skill centers, the other two being in China and the USA.
Lens is an engine of innovation, responsible for a third of the 200 patents that Novares has filed with the French national intellectual property institute, INPI. Lens, like all the powertrain skill centers, built its history on combustion engine development, but is today also focused on developing electric and hydrogen-powered engines.
The Lens center made its name reducing the weight and cost of individual engine parts by between 30 and 50%, finding plastic alternatives to parts traditionally made of metal. Now the center is focusing on today’s challenges of achieving greener, more sustainable vehicles and reducing CO2 emissions, winning prizes in recent years for innovations in fuel-cell technology and hydrogen-fueled vehicles.
The newly built 7,500 m2 center is equipped with laboratories and state-of-the-art mechanical simulation equipment and brings together the company’s best engineering and research experts in this field. The investment by Novares at the site recognizes the center’s importance as an international hub of powertrain expertise.
“The new skill center at Lens will not only give our expert teams the best facilities in which to develop their innovations, it will also become an international center of excellence, where we can show our global customers the fruits of our considerable R&D investment and how this translates into innovations that will help the cars of tomorrow meet the pressing challenges of today’s green agenda,” said Pierre Boulet, Novares CEO.
