OEM supplier Plastic Omnium (PO, Levallois / France; www.plasticomnium.com) is to invest EUR 50m in an international research and development centre in Compiègne / France, for its fuel systems division Inergy Automotive Systems (Paris / France; www.inergyautomotive.com).

Building on the success of PO’s “S-Sigmatech”, the research and development centre for exterior automotive components near Lyon / France, the new facility is intended to strengthen PO Inergy’s capacity for innovation in energy and environmental protection in the auto market through the reduction of polluting emissions.

The facility, expected to open in summer 2014, will be built on the existing Inergy Automotive Systems site in Venette near Compiègne. It will bring together 430 employees currently divided between Venette and Laval in central France, as well as teams from the electronics research and development centre in Brussels / Belgium. The number of employees is planned to expand to 500 – the same number as the Lyon R&D facility – within two years of the centre’s opening.