Press Release: State aid: Commission approves €24.2 million of aid to Valeo for the development of a new hybridisation system for petrol-engined vehicles

The European Commission has decided that the aid granted by France to the car component manufacturer Valeo to conduct the “Essencyele” research and development programme complies with the EU rules on state aid.

The aim of this project is to develop an intermediate (or “mild”) hybrid system for petrol-engined vehicles capable of constituting a compromise between the existing “micro” hybrid technology (with a low‑cost start‑stop system, which generates limited CO2 emission gains) and expensive “full” hybrid solutions (with an electric drive mode, generating substantial emissions gains). The aid addresses a genuine market failure without giving rise to an undue distortion of competition.