Hexafret, the successor of Fret SNCF, established a new rail freight service on behalf of Stellantis to move their cars between their factory in Mulhouse and the port of Toulon, in southern France. The service runs four times a month.
The initiative moves onto the railways the equivalent of 1,900 trucks every year. Each train can carry over 200 cars. Once the trains reach Toulon, the cars are loaded onto ships to be exported to Italy, Türkiye and Algeria.
Over the past few years, Stellantis has been redirecting various flows from road to rail. It happened domestically in France, with this new service and the return to rail freight services serving the factory in Hordain. It has done so internationally as well, with a service connecting factories in Italy and Poland launched in August 2022.