Volvo Group said on Feb. 10 it had rejected a French government loan aimed at helping Volvo's ailing subsidiary Renault Trucks weather the economic crisis, citing unacceptable conditions. "The alleged conditions set forth by the French government to the French car industry... are such that we will not accept them," Maarten Wikforss, a spokesman for the group, said, referring to France's plan.
"With the loans it seems it's not possible to get any new job cuts or close any factory," Wikforss said. "Conditions like that we will not adhere to."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Feb. 9 announced state loans of almost eight billion euros (more than US$10 billion) for French carmakers, in exchange for pledges to keep jobs and assembly lines in France.
Sarkozy said that under the plan Renault Trucks would receive half a billion euros. French national champions Renault and Peugeot Citroen will each receive loans of three billion euros over five years.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009
