GROUPEMENT D'INTERET ECONOMIQUE DERECHERCHES ET D'ETUDES PSA RENAULT

Their core work

GIE RECHERCHES ET ETUDES PSA RENAULT is a Groupement d'Intérêt Économique — a French legal structure that pools the shared R&D resources of PSA Group (Peugeot/Citroën, now Stellantis) and Renault, two of Europe's largest automotive manufacturers. In practice, this entity functions as a joint automotive research office that channels the combined technical requirements, test infrastructure, and engineering expertise of both OEMs into collaborative EU projects. Their work spans road safety causation and effectiveness analysis (understanding why accidents happen and how interventions reduce them) to the real-world deployment and piloting of connected and automated driving systems. Because they represent both major French car manufacturers simultaneously, they bring an unusually broad OEM perspective to any consortium they join.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the 2015–2018 period, the GIE's engagement was in road safety — specifically understanding the causal chain behind accidents and measuring the real-world benefit of safety systems, reflecting automotive manufacturers' regulatory and liability concerns at the time. By 2021–2025, the focus had shifted entirely to connected and automated driving and the logistics of deploying automation at scale across multiple countries and road environments. This mirrors the broader industry shift: once passive safety was well-understood, both PSA and Renault turned their shared R&D attention to the next frontier — getting automated vehicles from lab to road.

This GIE is moving firmly toward real-world automated driving infrastructure and cross-border piloting, making them a relevant partner for any consortium that needs an OEM anchor with operational test capacity in Western Europe.

How they like to work

The GIE has never taken a coordinator role — they join as a participant or third party, contributing OEM-specific knowledge and assets rather than leading project management. Despite only two projects, they have accumulated 70 consortium partners across 16 countries, which points consistently to involvement in large, pan-European consortia rather than small bilateral collaborations. The third-party role in Hi-Drive (no direct EC funding) suggests they sometimes contribute access to vehicle fleets, test tracks, or proprietary datasets in exchange for involvement, rather than as a funded research partner.

With 70 unique consortium partners across 16 countries from just two projects, this GIE consistently participates in very large, multi-stakeholder European consortia. Their network is pan-European with a clear focus on transport and automotive ecosystem actors.

What sets them apart

This entity is rare in the EU research landscape: it represents the combined automotive R&D voice of both PSA (Stellantis) and Renault in a single legal entity, giving any consortium access to the technical validation criteria, engineering standards, and real-vehicle test capacity of two Tier 1 OEMs at once. For projects that need an automotive industry anchor to achieve credibility with regulators or to conduct real-world demonstrations, this GIE fills a role that no single-brand industrial partner can replicate. Their third-party involvement model also means they can engage in projects without full funding dependency, which makes them a flexible consortium asset.

Highlights from their portfolio

• Hi-Drive
  A 2021–2025 large-scale automated driving deployment project — the GIE's most forward-looking engagement, focused on cross-border real-world trials at the frontier of vehicle automation.
• SafetyCube
  Carried the GIE's only direct EC funding (€356,250) and established their presence in pan-European road safety research, linking OEM engineering expertise to policy-relevant safety causation analysis.