The government remains convinced that the Automobility Campus in Bissen will develop over the next few years. (Photo: Guy Wolff/Maison Moderne)

The government remains convinced that the Automobility Campus in Bissen will develop over the next few years. (Photo: Guy Wolff/Maison Moderne)

The development of the Automobility Campus in Bissen, which was unveiled in 2016, seems to be well behind schedule. The ministry of the economy admits as much, while indicating that its ambitions for the campus remain intact.

Is the Automobility Campus project in Bissen, a zoning area intended to house technological nuggets active in the field of 'smart mobility', already dead? The ambitions for the 14-hectare site, unveiled in 2016, seem to be slow to materialise. The government had made the Automobility Campus part of its economic diversification policy--geared towards advanced technology--and territorial decentralisation. The subject was raised by DP deputies and , who questioned minister of the economy (LSAP) about the campus last July.

It is true that although the company IEE took up residence there in 2019, LuxProvide has been operating the Meluxina supercomputer there since 2021 and the SnT of the Uni has occasionally carried out tests with driverless cars, the rest is still to come.

Incubator work to begin

"For some years now, the automotive sector has been turned upside down by the replacement of combustion engines by electric ones," the ministry explains. The covid pandemic and its economic consequences, in addition to recent supply difficulties in this industrial sector, explain why "Luxembourg and international companies that had planned to invest in Bissen in the medium and long term" have postponed their plans.

The ministry is convinced that these are only delays and says it retains all its ambitions for the Automobility Campus, which will eventually be a "site for innovative companies in the automotive industry and subcontracting".

Moreover, the incubator project announced in 2019, which will represent an investment of around €16m, will become a reality. Delayed by the pandemic, construction will begin shortly. The 5,000m2 will be intended for technological start-ups in the automotive sector and should be a new element of "medium and long-term attractiveness".

This article was first published in and has been translated by Delano.