Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, I am happy to welcome you to the annual combined general meeting of Faurecia. This event is an essential moment to inform you and discuss with our shareholders about the results, the prospects, the strategy, the governance, and social and environmental goals of the group, of your group. I would therefore like to thank you for coming here today. I would also like to thank the many shareholders who used their voting rights by mail, and those who are following the general meeting remotely, which is live-streamed on our website and which will also be available to watch later. I also would like to thank the members of the board of directors and the executive board, who are present in the room with us. I would like to inform you that we have with us Mr. Lodieu, a legal officer.
Where are you, please? Over there. I hope that we won't need your services, Counsel, but it's good to know that you're here. 2022 was an historic year for the group. We finalized the strategic and transformative acquisition of a majority stake in HELLA and its financing, which helps us now be a global leader in connected mobility, but also personalized and sustainable mobility. Against a backdrop marked by the persistent shortage in semiconductors, strong inflation, and the war in Ukraine, 2022 was the year that we started the integration process for HELLA. Cost synergies are estimated now by 2025 of EUR 300 million in EBITDA, and sales synergies, therefore, revenue synergies by 2025, are estimated at over EUR 400 million.
Let me add this: What was accomplished by this company in 2022 is considerable, especially, but not exclusively, for everything that revolves around the integration of Faurecia and HELLA. A shareholders' meeting, like the one bringing us together, is by nature, a moment to take stock with some equanimity and solemnity. This atmosphere does not capture the difficulty, the multiple tensions, the many surprises, the uphill challenges that characterize the operating life of an industrial group like ours. To lead this ship on rough seas, Patrick Koller is sparing no effort. He completed with his team the achievement of a strategic acquisition for your company, that of a majority stake in HELLA. Quite unpredictably, less than one month after the acquisition was finalized, the war in Ukraine and its many cascading repercussions significantly strengthened and significantly tightened the macroeconomic and political context.
Against this very difficult backdrop, Patrick Koller led efforts to complete the refinancing of this major investment, and he completed an essential asset disposal plan to reduce the group's debt, which was mechanically increased by the acquisition. Although after the acquisition of the majority stake in HELLA, the group's deleveraging would have been, in any case, at in the midterm, it is now an absolute priority in the short run, in the current macroeconomic context, a well-identified priority as such by the managements and the board of directors of this company. It is with this imperative in mind that we launched the EUR 1 billion by 2023 asset disposal program, and a decision to exceptionally suspend the dividend in 2023 for the fiscal year 2022.
The Power25 plan, presented by management last November, which you will have a reminder about today, expects to come to reasonable debt by the end of 2025, with steady improvements in performance and value creation. When? This is the question that many are probably asking amongst you. When is that progress going to be reflected in your company's share price? You saw it suffer much more than sectoral comparables in 2022, you saw it rebound more than its comparables in 2023, as soon as fears about the completion of the goals of the asset disposal program were dispelled. I am confident that everything that is being done to improve your company's competitiveness and performance, as well as its financial situation, is going to be better expressed in our share price in the future and in the payout of dividends.
I would like to give three words of thanks. Thank you to our shareholders for their loyalty and patience. Thank you to Patrick Koller for his constant and unwavering commitment, thank you to all employees of the two companies in our group for their involvement, their solidarity, and their agility in this challenging economic context. Within this spirit of tightly knit collaboration, Faurecia and HELLA organized their first joint Capital Markets Day, which was an opportunity to reveal the Power25 midterm plan for the group, which is based around three strategic priorities: sustain sales growth, thanks to innovation and sustainability; improve profitability and lower break-even; generate strong cash conversion, actively manage the portfolio in order to accelerate the group's deleveraging.
I have with me here, Patrick Koller , whom you all know, CEO and Director, Olivier Durand, CFO, and Nolwenn Delaunay, Secretary of the Board and Chief Counsel of the company. Last year, our CFO was Michel Favre. Since then, he went to serve as Chair of the Executive Board of HELLA. He was replaced by Olivier Durand instead, who was already at Faurecia, back then in Japan, and I would ask him to please introduce himself.
Well, thank you, Michel. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, good afternoon. My name is Olivier Durand. Before I joined Faurecia in 2017, I mostly worked at Schneider Electric and Alcatel, and within Alcatel, I was, in particular, the Deputy CFO between 2012 and 2016, and in 2016, 2017, I was CFO. I joined Faurecia in 2017.
I was deputy CFO for five years, then for one year, I was head of Faurecia Clarion Electronics business in Japan. I've been CFO since the 1st of July last year. My goal is clearly to deliver the full potential of the combination of Faurecia and HELLA against a robust and structured financial framework, so that we can unleash this potential in every dimension.
Thank you, Olivier. This combined shareholders meeting is convened on its first notice. Legal publications related to the shareholders convening were carried out in the prescribed deadlines. The accounts, reports, and all documents that were to be put at the disposal of shareholders were made available within the legal and regulatory provisions applicable. These documents, which I'm not going to read exhaustively, be reassured, are on the table at the back of the room.
We are now going to appoint the bureau to check the quorum and remind you of our meeting's agenda. I observe that among shareholders present or represented, we have, in particular, Peugeot 1810, represented by CEO Bertrand Finet, and the Faurecia Mutual Fund, represented by Isabelle Dezaga, who is here. If you agree, Bertrand Finet and Isabelle Dezaga agreed, I checked, agreed to serve as tellers. Thank you to the both of you. I also suggest that Nolwenn Delaunay, like last year, serve as secretary of the meeting. In line with applicable provisions, I am chairing this meeting as chairman of the board of directors. I would like to remind you that what I'm going to say are essential. These are imposed mentions as a sort of legal disclaimer.
We can only validly decide for the ordinary part, if a fifth of actions, of votes, of shares with voting rights are present or represented. For the extraordinary part, we can only validly decide if one quarter of shares with voting rights are present or represented. Regarding the quorum, I will inform you that the share capital of Faurecia is made up of 197,089,340 shares. From this number of shares, you need to subtract the number of treasury shares for Faurecia of 154,593 shares to get the number of reference shares for the calculation of the quorum. The number of shares owned by shareholders present, represented, or who have voted by mail.
By post or on the internet, all who have given proxies is 127,339,133 shares, which is 64.66% of shares with voting rights. This is a percentage significantly higher than the 20% and 25% quorums mentioned for the validity of deliberations for the ordinary and extraordinary parts of general meetings met on first notice. Since we have a quorum, this meeting can validly decide, and I would like to point out that this is almost the most interesting moment when Patrick Koller takes the microphone. When the meeting decides as a, an ordinary general meeting, resolutions will need to be adopted at a simple majority, and when it decides in the conditions of an extraordinary general meeting, decisions will have to be made with a 2/3 majority.
I'll remind you that this meeting is asked to decide on the agenda that was sent in the convening brochure that was made available before this meeting. No changes have been brought to the agenda. I suggest that I shan't read the full agenda. I am now calling this meeting to order. Our meeting will cover the following topics. First of all, the global leader position of our group in its various businesses, business lines. First, the key elements of the first year of FORVIA, combining the strengths of Faurecia and HELLA. We will explain the financial performance of the past financial year and our goals for 2023.
Before we present the Power25 plan, as it was presented to financial markets, we will also discuss governance and your company's CSR commitment, then remunerations before our Statutory Auditors speak. We move on to the questions and answers session. We vote on the resolutions. Patrick Koller, Olivier Durand, Nolwenn Delaunay, Jean-Bernard Lévy, Chairman of the Governance, Nominations and Sustainability Committee, and Denis Mercier, Chairman of the Compensation Committee. The College of Statutory Auditors and myself are going to present these various topics. I would like now to invite Patrick Koller to make a presentation about 2022, an historic year for Faurecia.
Thank you, Michel. It's with great pleasure that I'm welcoming you here in Nanterre, in person, but also live on a video live stream. Let's start with taking stock of who we are now, after this acquisition of HELLA.
First of all, this company is a leader in all its businesses, in its six business lines. First, seating, with a number one global position on seat frames and mechanisms. This frames and mechanisms part is the technological part of seats, because this is this part which is going to absorb energy in cases of crashes, and that's going to guarantee the right positioning of the seat after the crash to ensure the safety of occupants. We are the global number three on seat assemblies, and that includes the just-in-time part. We have just-in-time factories in various countries. We're also global number one on interiors, so these are door cards, the dashboards, center consoles, all these elements. We decided in 2022 to create a new division called MATERI'ACT.
MATERI'ACT is an entity which is going to define and formulate new materials that are going to be combinations of virgin and recycled materials, and also biosourced materials. MATERI'ACT is focusing on three types of materials: plastics, so compounds, but also surfaces, and in particular, high value-added surface materials, and also carbon fiber with biosourced precursors for carbon fiber. Clean mobility, ULE, that's ultra-light emissions. These are, as the name says, ultra-low emissions. We are global number one. Here, we're talking about engines and engine platforms. Car makers have now chosen to focus on a limited number of engine platforms, roughly three for the biggest ones and just a couple for the other ones.
These platforms are going to have a very long, extended life cycle, which is in line with a business model which is highly in our favor, because that limits cash expenditures as well as R&D expenditures. Our ambition, as you know, is to become global number 1 in hydrogen, in particular on fuel cells. You saw that we finalized our agreement with Stellantis. Stellantis is going to get a 1/3 stake in Symbio. That way, we'll be able to use the firepower of Stellantis, in particular, North America. Big American SUVs need hydrogen. This is the most suited technology for these vehicles. What's more, Stellantis is also bringing vehicle know-how, physics know-how, which is very interesting for our development. On electronics, we are the global leader on a number of markets. It's a bit more difficult because we don't have a direct competitor in electronics.
It's a lot more diversified, it's a lot more fragmented. I'll come back to a number of products so that you have a better overview and understanding of what we are doing now. However, we have 3,000 software engineers. The software part is a constantly growing part on which we need to get a foothold with resources in different countries. We are the global leader in lighting, in terms of technology in particular, not in revenues, but in technology, and I think that this is a recognized positioning with car makers. We're on headlights and taillights and also indoor interior lighting, and here also, I'm going to give you a few examples. Last but not least, the last part, life cycle solutions.
This is distribution. Here also, very interestingly, our leadership position is on diagnostic tools, including connected diagnostic tools, remote diagnostic tools, so that we can prepare an intervention in the shop, ordering spare parts, just those that are necessary for a repair, so that you can go swiftly and so that you have the smallest downtime possible for a vehicle. To give you an idea, we have all the digital data for 35,000 circulating vehicles. This is quite an interesting position, which is only going to grow in the future. What's also interesting if you look at these six business lines, we're fully aligned with the automotive mega trends, so with growth and sustainable growth generators at that. Talking about sustainable and profitable growth, we are positioned on three main levers. The first one is electrification and energy management.
That, of course, applies to electric cars. As you can see that on that market segment, we have between 2021 and 2025, our annual CAGR, Combined Annualized Growth Rate, was over 30%. The second part is safety and assisted or automated driving. This is also growing very strongly. CAGR was over 25% over the same period. Finally, the cockpit part, the interiors of the car, which are more and more digital, but also more and more eco-friendly. CAGR there has been higher than 10%. These three elements are much higher than the growth in the global automotive sector. What matters for us is growth that goes hand in hand with risk reduction. I'm going to try and explain why we think that our new configuration with HELLA is limiting risks for this company. First of all, six business lines.
Six distinct business lines with different characteristics from one another, also highly complementary ones. With solutions which are sustainable and lasting because transformations in the automotive sector take longer. That's the case for seating and interiors, with limited exposure to the combustion engine parts, ICE. You saw that we sold the part of clean mobility for LCVs, for commercial vehicles, which is going to reduce this 19% exposure to 15%. We are strong in electronics, we are growing strongly in electronics and also in lighting and life cycle solutions, which is the sixth of our business lines. Secondly, our geographical split is balanced, with Europe at 45%, you can see a good balance between Americas and Asia.
Americas are growing strongly, that's only going to grow, and I think that this is quite interesting because this is the only automotive region in the world which is still growing. Sales by customer, by client, and here, after the two disposals that we had in 2022, both on the LCV part and clean mobility and SAS, so cockpit modules, Volkswagen is going to become smaller from 18 to maybe 16%, maybe a bit lower, and our goal is to have no clients over 15% of our overall revenues. We've got more and more clients, including Chinese clients, with which we have strong growth. You can also see the American EV manufacturer, which we are not allowed to name, but they are capturing a significant share of our revenues.
I think that now to illustrate the Shanghai Motor Show, we've got a video that we'd like to share with you. This Shanghai Motor Show was quite impressive, and it showed after a three-year absence because of COVID, how much the market had made further progress, both in terms of quality but also in terms of technological content. I would now like to show you a few of our technologies. I hope I won't take too long, but I think it's important for you to gauge, for you to have an understanding of the way, Of how much our group has changed. Let's start with hydrogen storage systems. You have these cylinders that you know, which are not really adequate for use in cars. The next generation is this.
These are conformable tanks that go instead of power cells and battery packs that you find under the vehicle's floor. With that, we have a lot of flexibility, and you can have hybrid solutions where you have both battery cells and hydrogen systems. With these tanks, you have much higher storage capacity, higher by about 50%. You also make savings because there's only one valve going from 700 bars to 10 bars, which is the usage pressure, instead of having one valve per cylinder. It's also possible to recycle these components. Their nature, carbon fiber is of completely different nature. To go even further on CO2, it's also considered that you could have a circular economy based on these tanks that could be used in several car cycles.
To do that, we'd need to have the full history of these tanks, and they are therefore connected. There are a number of sensors on them so that we know what are the shocks and crashes, the events that happened to these tanks during their lifetime. Energy management. We've talked about this earlier, energy and thermal management. Here you've got different devices. The first one is a high voltage DC-DC converter. These high voltage converters, their role is to turn the high voltage stored in the batteries, around 800 volts, to bring it down to usage voltages of roughly 48 volts for the various electrical subsystems in the car, including those that are in the cockpit for instruments and for the infotainment part, so radio, television, everything you've got in the car. They're very important. They need to be as compact as possible.
They need to be as powerful as possible as well, and there's a lot of technology associated to these items. The second one is the coolant control hub. This is a calorie dispatcher, both for cooling and heating, for all of the items related to the electrical powertrain. What's very interesting with these systems is that they help make major mass savings because they replace a large number of products in the car, roughly 50% less components, if you look for the same functions. And the last one is the BMS, the Battery Management System, which helps safely manage all the charge and discharge phases for the batteries, which are transitional elements with a lot of heat generated in battery cells that could be very dangerous.
You can also manage the range of the car, therefore optimizing battery management and therefore the vehicle's range. Electronic architecture. We are moving towards a so-called centralized electronic architecture with geographical zone items, the front, the interior, and the rear of the vehicle. These zonal modules are directly connected to a central powerful computer with a lot of software on board. This central computer is, of course, itself connected to the outside world, in particular, to the cloud. With these systems, you will have more safety, more speed. You can use more software, and that improves quality because you've got fewer connections, and you're replacing the cable harnesses, and there are now a lot of cables in cars, and you're replacing them with much simpler connections.
You're talking about zonal modules with a building block, standardized building block approach, which is very well-suited to our customers' needs. The second example is the ability to equip the cars with secure Ethernet connectivity. We're the only ones to do that. We also have an offering with an electronic embedded fuse called eFuse, and we are the first ones offering it on the market. Safety strengthened with vision systems, so eMirrors replacing the rearview mirrors. Replacing them because with that, you can add functionalities, safety functionalities, such as bike detection, and that automatically locks your door, so you can't open the door as long as the hazard is present. With these elements, you can also be alarmed when something abnormal is happening with specific brightness, or then they strongly dim the brightness so that you're not blinded by the displays.
They can also highlight details that matter for you to assist you in your driving. These eMirrors are going to be approved for the first time on the Chinese market from July onwards, the first of July onwards. We'll be the first ones with a production car in China, starting in July this year. The second part is radars. We are the global leader on radars, especially corner radars. This is the third generation, 77 GHz. Now you've got a further and further vision, so their radius of action is bigger and bigger with each generation. We were the leader with the previous generation. In our order book now, we have more than what we delivered throughout the lifetime of the previous generation. This is real market recognition of the quality of this equipment.
You've got smart presence detection with UWB, ultra-wideband technology, ultra-wideband frequencies, and with that, this is a sort of anti-theft that allows for keyless access to the vehicle. You can also detect a child's breathing, like a baby or an animal that you'd leave in the car. Unfortunately, every year, there are lethal accidents happening with children left in locked cars. With this multifunctional system, very affordable at that, you can fix that problem. You've got environmental sensors, in particular, moisture sensors, but also sensors measuring water on the road, and this is very important for autonomous driving, automated driving, so as to adjust all the braking and response systems, also the trajectory control for these cars. Lighting. Smart lighting, we are number one on high-resolution lights based on LED technologies, diodes, but as matrices.
The latest matrices that we have 25,000 LED elements per chip. With that, you can define or distribute light exactly as you want. You probably don't know it, but there are different regulations from one country to the next on the distribution of lighting on the road, which each time forces to develop specific variants. With these systems, it's no longer necessary. You just need to program the LEDs to have exactly what you want. Exactly what you want means that you can project messages on the road, which, once again, might improve safety or help you drive. When you have, if you're in doubt, going between the pavement and a poorly parked lorry, your light system will give you the exact size of the vehicle, and you'll be able to gauge whether you can slip through or not. Front Phygital Shield.
Electric cars no longer need front cooling, so front grills are quite different. They are now an integral part of brand differentiation for car makers. Car makers are using it not just to differentiate themselves, but also to hide a number of sensors, like radars, in particular, but also to bring animations to the front end. That could even go as far as messages for pedestrians and people crossing the car's path. Here, for these elements, this is very intense. We've got EUR 1 billion in orders taken, especially for the premium car makers, we have a leadership position. On rear lights, tail lights. Tail lights need to be smaller and smaller. There's also a need to be able to project messages or to display messages.
You need the utmost homogeneity, because this contributes to the perceived quality of cars, and with that, in any case, that it helps save energy. That's not just true for tail lights, that's applicable to all lights. Finally, on this slide, you've got interior lighting. Far, you had just lines of LEDs, strips of lighting, but now you'll have embedded lighting in surface treatments of cars, and you'll have completely different ambient lighting in the cars, and that can also warn you about potential hazards in many, many cases.
Automated driving is also made possible through new components. For instance, an entirely electric steering. So a steer-by-wire, where you no longer have a steering shaft. This is really important because you need to duplicate this control similar to what we have on planes. You need to have these two separate levels in order to ensure maximum safety. This is what is used the most in the industry. This will also lead to some cost savings, because you will be saving on mechanical elements for steering, and this also allows for greater flexibility in car design. With this steer-by-wire, we will also be able to change the necessary angle for parking, for instance.
You will no longer have to turn your wheel several times. With a single angle of 120 degrees, you will be able to turn the wheels of your car, and this will make parking a lot easier. It is also highly scalable depending on driving styles. The second part related to automated driving is what is related to pedals, including brakes. This time, again, we need some duplication for safety purposes. Here it will be working with the pressure only, and we can really have a customized, a tailored set of pedals for car makers.
This will be tailored to the needs of the customers of those car makers, and there are various possibilities regarding how it's going to work. Here, once again, you will be saving on hydraulic components. We will be able to make a considerable savings, and this is a completely different architecture of the vehicle. Connected services. We would like to inform you that we now offer an app store which is similar to what is available from Apple or Google. This is the third biggest app store in the world, and we'll be offering apps in various countries for car makers, but also various functionalities, including remote payments. Aptoide is a JV 50/50%, and this is based in Portugal.
This is already equipping 17 million vehicles. To the right of this slide, you can see that we standardized some connected services, allowing us to offer some specific displays for our customers. These are the video matrices that you already know, but we've been working on lighting, including rear lighting. We know that except for OLEDs, it's difficult to get the right type of black in the automotive industry. You also have all of the systems that will improve vision of these displays, depending of the level of light. This is my last slide, related to architecture, because once again, we absolutely need to change the way we work.
We have a depreciation that is happening too quickly on cars. The loans that you can get to buy a car are on very short term and therefore very expensive. This is actually a barrier for younger generations. The average buyer of a new car in France is aged 57 years old. Just to give you an idea of the reality of the market. We need to change this, in my opinion, there's no reason why a depreciation should happen that quickly for cars. In order to be able to change the value of a car, we need to be able to upgrade its value. This is what is already available for electronics.
You can get upgrades for electronic devices, we could imagine the same thing possible for physical components as well, through architectures that are modular or through repairs that could be made more possible. In France, and in France only, we have a pilot for the repair of electronic systems, and we have a catalog of over 35,000 spare parts. After repair, this should not cost more than 40% of new equipment. With this system, I think that we will have a game changer in the coming years. As you can see with MATERI'ACT, up to -85% CO2, I will come back later to net zero emissions and SBTi.
Our objective is to complete this roadmap by the end of 2045, and we need to use a negative CO2 materials in order to achieve this target, i.e., biosourced materials. Now, regarding our plants, some pieces of information. First of all, regarding safety, in 2022, for accidents with and without stoppage, per million hours worked , we were at 2.08, and our objective for 2027 is 1.5. Now, if I look at accidents with stoppage at Faurecia, we were at 0.8 in 2022, and over the last half of 2022, 0.6, and for the Q1 of 2023, 0.5. We are at our best level right now.
HELLA is currently lagging behind on this, but it is improving greatly in terms of safety, using our standards. Digital transformation. We deployed our fully digital production system in 40 sites of the group. We will be deploying this technology in 30 additional sites in 2023, and we have 150 plants by 2025, that will have reached this level of a digital transformation, amounting to over 85% of the sales of your group. Lastly, regarding energy efficiency. The reduction in energy consumption in 2025 versus 2025 will be over 20%, measured in megawatt hour per million euros of sales. I think that we are now going to play a video to show you how we can reach this digital transformation.
d'usine. This is a highly digitized plant from the reception of plastics to the loading of trucks. It is important to dedicate plants to some families of products because we need to have products with similarities in terms of dimensions and weight. Once we've managed those constraints, things can move on really fast, as we saw in this particular example. Now, a few words about our net zero roadmap. We have various stats. The first one will be in 2025 for Scopes one and two. For this, we are ahead of our roadmap about one year. This roadmap was also approved by SBTi. The second step will be a 45% reduction in emissions for Scope three by 2030.
Of course, as I said earlier, our objective is to reach a net zero certified, approved by SBTi by 2045. Regarding the Scopes one and two, this is energy consumption and green energy. First point, we've improved, we've reduced our energy consumption by 30%. We've installed solar panels on the roofs of our plants. As you can see, 150 plants will be equipped this way by 2025 in 22 countries, and this amounts to 7% of our global power consumption. We have invested in two wind turbines in Sweden.
We've invested in 37 wind turbines in these farms, and by the end of this year, they will be generating 650 gigawatts per hour of power, and this amounts to two-thirds of our European electricity needs. As you can see, we are far ahead of the targets in our roadmap, and we are therefore confident that we'll be able to deliver this net zero emissions by 2045. We've just entered the CAC 40 ESG at the end of last year. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that we are the only company in the automotive industry worldwide to be recognized for net zero. This certification was achieved in June last year. I've mentioned MATERI'ACT earlier. These are CO2 neutral products.
This was launched in 2022. At the end of this year, we'll have 120 employees, 11 nationalities, including 38% of women. 20% of our employees hold PhDs, and the average age is 37 years old for this team. The tech center for MATERI'ACT is based in France. A note in passing, Symbio is based in Lyon. MATERI'ACT is also based in Lyon, and our activities for hydrogen tanks is based in the east of France, meaning that all of our new technologies were related to investments carried out here in France. In this new tech center, we will also have a startup incubator. Indeed, there are a number of breakthroughs that we can benefit from and that we can integrate into our products.
Our target is to produce 25 kilotons per year by the end of 2023, and our target in terms of sales is over EUR 2 billion by 2030. We have been approached by industrial players from outside the automotive sector as well. The group is also a responsible and inclusive group. You know how much we care about these particular elements, and we have some very clear targets. First of all, 30% of women managers and professionals by 2030, and 20% of women in the top 300 leaders of the company by 2030. In 2022, we hired 35% of women out of all of our new hires. We are working at all levels in the company.
We also established a foundation with three main objectives: education, mobility, and environment. It is fueled by ideas coming from our employees. We have over 200 active volunteers working on these projects for 6,000 beneficiaries and about 20 new projects per year. I strongly invite you to check this out. This allows me to share some additional information on this. We've communicated on this before, but never as part of a general meeting. This is our new mission. You can check the translation in French at the bottom of this slide, but I'm not sure I'm really happy with the French translation of this.
We pioneer technology for mobility experiences, so any kind of mobility experiences, but most of all, customized experiences that matter to people. I think that this last part, what matters to communities, what matters to customers, is really the most important part. Everything that's related to safety, to security for this mobility. We need this mobility, of course, to be so safe, but also affordable. This is a human right. We need to make mobility accessible to the greatest number. We need it to be sustainable as well as customized. These are the four pillars that we'll be relying on in our product offer. These are the pillars that will also be recognized by consumers.
Regarding our change of corporate name, as you know, this is on the agenda of this combined general meeting. I'd like to give you some background information on this to explain why we think that this is an important step in the creation of the combined group. This change in corporate name will apply to the SE, Faurecia SE. That will become FORVIA SE. When we presented this name, we explained that we needed a name that would be easy to remember, that would be easy to pronounce in any language in the world. A name that would also allow us to access the B2C business that would allow us to target customers directly. We needed to have a name full of energy, easy to pronounce.
We needed to make sure that it could not have any negative note in any of those languages. We need it to be a reflection of our culture or our cultures, Faurecia and HELLA. We need it to be a legacy of what we've achieved in both companies. I think that with the Faure from Faurecia, and Via, which is the road. I think that this is a great reflection of how we would like to improve the awareness and attractiveness of our brand towards the whole of the ecosystems that we are interacting with. I think that it is also a good reflection of the significant progress made by the current group, which is a technological company.
I think that this is a great summary of this particular change. Forvia will be receiving a new mnemonic code for the share, and this will happen within the three days following your vote, if you approve this resolution. 2022 was Forvia's first year, so I'd like to share some elements on this. As Michel recalled, 2022 was far from easy with the war in Ukraine, which broke out on the 24th of February, a month after we had closed our deal on the 1st of February. Which entailed a significant energy crisis, strong inflation for energy prices, but not only inflation in almost all industries, including transport.
COVID in China, especially at the end of 2022, with contamination rates that skyrocketed up to 80% in some of our plants. The semiconductor crisis, which is not over, which started in 2020, and which is still there, although it is less acute today. Supply chain disruption. We've even though we've managed to improve our dependency on this since the beginning of this crisis. I think that with all of the consequences related to this challenging context, we've seen the acceleration of the new electronic architecture. This will become a standard for all of the software architecture.
The increasing place of AI in all of society with major changes that we need to get ready for and that we need to anticipate. Of course, major changes in work organization. All of these challenges contribute to this climate of uncertainty. I think that uncertainty is just standard now. I think that we need to be agile enough to benefit from these opportunities. There are still opportunities attached to these major changes. Let's now go back over four years of first year. On the 7th of February 2022, we celebrated the final closing of the acquisition of HELLA. Sorry, the completion was made on the 31st of January 2022.
In June, for the FORVIA Group, we managed to include HELLA for our certification with SBTi, a process that we had initiated with Faurecia. Our roadmap for net zero emissions by 2045. In June, we also had a capital increase of EUR 705 million. This was a difficult context, but we managed to do this. We entered the CAC 40 ESG in September 2022. In November of 2022, we had the creation of MATERI'ACT, and we published our Power25 action plan with our first Sustainability Day. We were at the CES in January 2023.
We managed to present all of FORVIA's technology portfolio. In February 2023, after one year of FORVIA, we presented our first consolidated results. Olivier will present this later. We had a solid cash generation and a refinancing of HELLA acquisition that was finalized. We also managed to finalize the set disposal program of EUR 1 billion that we had announced. We were at Auto Shanghai in 2023. We could showcase our portfolio at this show. In May 2023, we finalized the contract with Stellantis for the stake in Symbio, and we also transferred to Cummins the clean mobility activity for commercial vehicles. These were our first achievements, first successes that were absolutely necessary.
The situation was difficult on capital markets. First of all, because of our debt levels, second, because of the capital increase. We decided to focus on the three main pillars: our ability to refinance our acquisition, which we did, and we demonstrated to capital markets that we could achieve this. Our asset disposal program of EUR 1 billion was finalized in a difficult economic context. We published our results in February, showing that this program had been finalized. Regarding cash generation, our net debt to EBITDA was at 2.4, so no problem for the covenants.
2.6, sorry, we could complete our covenants, which was the third challenge raised by capital markets. We upgraded our roadmap for the synergies with HELLA. Of cost synergies, going from EUR 250 million to EUR 300 million, and say the in- synergies, going up to EUR 400 million. This was supported by a joint order intake, directly related to sales synergies between both groups, worth EUR 1.8 billion in 2022. Sustainable growth is another significant element. Strong order intake of EUR 31 billion, with a targeted average operating margin over 7%. Our order intake was at that point, at a record high.
I think that we have a video to display just before I give the floor to Olivier.
In 2022, a new automotive leader was born, FORVIA, the world's seventh-largest automotive supplier. A year where we showed the combined innovation strength of Faurecia and HELLA for customers across Europe, Asia, and the U.S. unveiled our Power25 plan for profitable and sustainable growth, cash generation, and deleveraging. Successfully refinancing our acquisition of HELLA and delivering significant synergies while navigating an uncertain environment with the war in Ukraine, inflation, and a sharp increase in energy prices. We're a technology player with a future-facing, diversified, and balanced portfolio. We address the fastest-growing industry trends: electrification and energy management, safe and automated driving, digital and sustainable cockpit experiences. Winning in 2022, high-value contracts with customers in all geographies. Increasing our technology contribution to electric and hydrogen vehicles, premium SUV, and light trucks, and growing our electronics and software activity. Innovating for customers, consumers, and the planet, too.
The first automotive company to have a net zero target validated by SBTi. Generating green power at our own sites, pioneering new sustainable materials. Continuing to transform and improve all dimensions of our activity. Attracting new talents, fostering diverse and inclusive teams. All while giving back to local communities. Especially in times of crisis. Celebrating our growth and our history. This has been how teams at FORVIA pioneered technology for mobility experiences that matter to people. Inspiring mobility for all. FORVIA.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to give you a full rundown of the company's performance in the fiscal year 2022, and I'll start first with a quick presentation of the markets in which we're doing business. This market grew slightly last year by 6.6%. This is mostly a market that was extremely contrasted last year. The first half was very difficult. First, because of the direct and indirect consequences of the war in Ukraine, and also the strong lockdown that there was in China in the second quarter. The first half of last year was less than 39 million cars, a slight decline compared to the previous year, which was already tight. The second half was more encouraging, with 43 million vehicles and an increase compared to the same period the previous year of nearly 15%.
This is a market which is still below the pre-COVID levels, with still a number of constraints, especially related to semiconductor shortages and the consequences of inflation, but there's been a gradual recovery throughout 2022, and I'll comment on the beginning of 2023 later. Four things to mention that I'll come back to in detail. The first one is clearly the change in the size of the company. Revenues for 2022 reached nearly EUR 25.5 billion , or 63% up on the previous year. That's, of course, the consequence of the consolidation of HELLA from the 1st of February, but also of organic growth that I'll explain, which is above the market levels. Regarding profitability was EUR 1.115 billion in operating income.
That's a EUR 253 million increase, but above all, an increase over the year with the first half, that was a 3.7% and the second one at 5%. Regarding cash flow, cash flow is high. We delivered EUR 471 million in cash flow generation in the year 2022 versus EUR 305 million the previous year. I'll give you more details about this performance on the next few pages. The consequence of the actions that we led, both through cash flow generation and the beginning of the effects of our disposal divestment program. As early as the second half of 2022, we could reduce our leverage with a net debt over EBITDA ratio. EBITDA is the operating income before depreciations and amortizations.
Net debt to EBITDA went from 3.1x at the end of June 2022, after the acquisition of 82% of HELLA, to 2.6x at the end of December 2022. If you take all these various items, first, revenues, as you can see, major growth of 63%. This includes EUR 6.5 billion coming from 11 months of consolidation of HELLA. That's 41.7% of this growth. A slight improvement related to foreign exchange effects because of the variations of the U.S. dollar and the Chinese renminbi for the period, 4.3%, and above all, 17% in organic growth, EUR 2.654 billion excluding scope effects and Forex, and you should compare that to the market at 6.6% growth, so an over-performance of over 10% over the year.
This over-performance, however, includes the impacts of inflation, because the inflationary context forced us to pass on most of the extra costs to our clients. So clear over-performance over the period. Regarding profitability, operating profitability was EUR 1.115 billion . This is a strong increase compared to the previous year, but with a decline in the profitability rate from 5.5% to 4.4%. As Michel and Patrick explained, the context was difficult, with the direct and indirect impact of the war in Ukraine, of inflation, severe stoppages of activity, especially in H1, the consequences of COVID-related restrictions, especially in China, and persistent shortages on semiconductors.
Against this backdrop, the company was able to prove its resilience with more flexible costs during times of fluctuating activity, especially in China. We could recover 85% of inflation. That limited the impact on our results of this element that was limited to EUR 95 million over the results of the past year. One thing to mention on operating income is the improved performance over the year, because we were not at 4.4% in H2, but at 5%. We improved compared to H2 the previous year, which is an encouraging sign about the growth of our business from this year onward. Regarding net income. Net income was a loss of EUR 382 million. These EUR 382 million in losses, in group share, includes EUR 321 million in non-recurring expenses.
First of all, we decided to fully leave Russia. The consequence was to impair all of our assets in this country. That's a EUR 143 million expense, mostly on the restructuring line. The second element for a specific expenditure on restructuring for EUR 86 million was a contract on seating in the U.S. You can see that excluding these items, the level of restructurings is similar to the previous year. Regarding the other lines, we had EUR 51 million in specific integration costs and financial costs related to the first year of the acquisition of HELLA. As you can see, on interest expense, we had specific hyperinflation costs of EUR 41 million for Turkey and Argentina. Last item of note on net income is the increase in minority interest.
An impact of minus EUR 95 million in 2021, up to EUR 131 million in 2022. That's, of course, related to the 18% that we don't own in HELLA. Regarding cash generation, despite the context, we were able to improve not just our EBITDA, but also our net cash flow to EUR 471 million, 1.9% of sales. This result includes, on the one hand, a positive impact because of the increase in our factoring program that was extended to HELLA, EUR 183 million, and conversely, an increase in financial costs of EUR 143 million, related, of course, to the acquisition of HELLA.
There, too, the year showed an increase in our results with the first half, where we only had EUR 106 million in cash flow generation, and H2 with EUR 369 million in cash flow generation, which means that the Manage by Cash program that we launched started paying off. This resulted, of course, into a change in our debt. The central goal for this company and its management is deleveraging and financial solidity after the transformative acquisition of HELLA. You can see that on that slide via several items. The first one is the finalization of the acquisition, which was fully financed. The second one, as Patrick mentioned, was full refinancing of acquisition bridge loans that were fully repaid. The last tranche was repaid on the 2nd of February, 2023.
The last item is the announcement and the completion of the asset disposal program for EUR 1 billion in cash proceeds by the end of 2023 in order to accelerate deleveraging, and the first disposal related to this operation happened in the second half of 2022. I will give you details about this program later. The first item, in terms of financial robustness, is the level of available cash that we had at the end of 2022, with EUR 4.2 billion. The consequence of these operations is clearly reduced leverage, with this ratio going from 3.1x to 2.6x as early as the second half of 2022. The goal for 2025 is a return to our structural ratio before the acquisition of 1.5x .
Regarding the beginning of 2023, the market went through 7.3% growth, which is quite normal given the very specific business that there was in the first quarter of 2022, especially because of the beginning of the war in Ukraine. You can see that with the very strong growth of 17.9% in Europe. We're still cautious about activity forecasts for the full year, with a market expected to be flat over the whole year at 82 million vehicles. Keep in mind that Standard & Poor's expect, for the moment, 85.5 million vehicles, +4%. Our hypotheses are with the market at EUR 82 million. What's specific about the first quarter is that we still had major growth above and beyond the market's growth, because we had 29% total growth and 17.6% organic growth.
The difference between the two figures is the integration of HELLA, that we only consolidated on the 1st of February 2022, and so we had three months of HELLA in 2023 versus one month for Q1 2022. What's specific about these figures is that this includes the application of IFRS 5. When you have a divestment of a major business for the company, you retroactively subtract this business, both for the figures of the current year and as a comparison of the previous year, and this includes the disposal of SAS. The divestment program has been fully launched. It's well underway, over EUR 1 billion. We had 320.
EUR 300 million in 2022, with two operations: the sale of HELLA's stake in the Plastic Omnium JV, HBPO, for EUR 290 million, and the disposal of our interiors plants in India to the TAFE Group for EUR 40 million. This year, we signed firm deals for the three operations that are ongoing. The first one is Stellantis buying into Symbio on equal terms with historical shareholders, Michelin and Faurecia. For Faurecia, we're going to sell 16.6% of Symbio for EUR 150 million. The second operation that was signed firmly last week was the disposal of exhaust gas treatment operations for LCVs in Europe and the US to Cummins, for an enterprise value of EUR 142 million.
Earlier in 2023, we announced the signature of the sale of SAS Assembly and Logistics Services to Motherson Group for an enterprise value of EUR 540 million. The sum total of these operations exceeds EUR 1 billion in cash proceeds that we are committed on. All these operations are currently being reviewed by antitrust authorities, and we are confident that they'll be closed by the end of 2023, as we committed. In these conditions, of course, we are confirming our guidance and goals for 2023. That is, in a flat market at 82 million vehicles and based on foreign exchange of $1.1 per euro and CNY 7.50 per euro, sales between EUR 25.2 billion and EUR 26.2 billion. Operating income between 5% and 6% of sales.
6% is the level we already had in H2 2022. Given the synergies and operational actions, we should keep making progress on that. Cash flow generation above 1.5% of sales, which would lead us, given the disposals that I mentioned earlier, lead to an additional decline in our leverage ratio that would go from 2.6x at the end of December 2022, to between 2x and 2.4x at the end of the year 2023. All these goals already take into account the impacts of the disposals that I mentioned, in particular, that of SAS and the second operation about the disposal of our LCV activities to Cummins, that we considered over the second half 2023. These goals and results put us on the right track to fully realize the Power25 plan.
Thank you, Olivier. A few quick words of conclusion on this part and looking ahead. Three priorities, they're not original, you know them: deleveraging, synergies, and sustainable growth. These three priorities are amongst the Power25 plan that Michel mentioned earlier in the afternoon. Our financial goals first for 25, sales around EUR 30 billion. operating margin over 7%, net cash flow at 4% of sales, and net debt over adjusted EBITDA under 1.5x at 31st December 2025. We're on track to meeting these goals. If you take the first element, which is our ambition for sustainable growth. In 2025, Standard & Poor's expects over 90 million, 90.7 million vehicles sold, to be precise. We expect 88, a 6 million vehicle growth compared to 2023.
This growth alone accounts for 40% of the increase in revenues, and you need to add to that Forex, and you've got roughly 50%, and the remaining 50% are market share gains or growth outstripping the market, and that's growth that's already in our older book. It's over 90% booked for this year, 2025. Synergies, we've talked about them, over EUR 400 million in commercial synergies. Once again, it's well underway with EUR 1.8 billion in the older book already in 2022. EUR 1.8 billion, that's roughly EUR 300 million for 2025. This year also, we are confident that we'll reach this EUR 400 million in 2025. You've got the EBITDA improvements. We mentioned an important goal for the group, which was the reduction of the breakeven to 61 million vehicles by 2025.
That's a significant reduction in our fixed costs by then, starting with a first step this year of EUR 150 million. EBITDA. EBITDA is, of course, going to benefit from growth, revenues growth, but also from this reduction in fixed costs and our costs overall. The Manage by Cash part, over 4% of sales, that's absolutely fundamental for us for deleveraging. You'll understand that deleveraging is the absolute priority. It would have been anyway, but the context where we are navigating now forces us to be more vigilant and to further accelerate deleveraging. Here you've got the curve for net debt over EBITDA. Our enterprise value held up well.
We are hoping that our debt reduction will be beneficial for the share price over the next few months, and we're also hoping that this reduced debt will reduce our beta, and therefore, the volatility on the share price. You saw that every time something happens in China or in the US, that impacts us more than our peers, and that also goes the other way. All this, to come back to this acceleration in our profitable and sustainable growth. Remember that we had EUR 16 billion in sales in 2021, EUR 25.5 billion in 2022. The secure outlook is at EUR 30 billion by 2025, with a continuous upside in our profitability and cash generation, hence our reduced debt.
This concludes the first part of, the first part, where we wanted to give you an update about our achievements in 2022, also what were our main goals and also the goals ahead. I will now give the floor to Jean-Bernard Lévy for governance. I'll just say a quick word before that, thanking Patrick and Olivier for these presentations. You might have found them lengthy, but they are very useful, and they help you, shareholders, dear shareholders, understand both the situation of your company and its strategy. Jean-Bernard Lévy is, as you know, the chairman of our Governance, appointments, and sustainable development committee, and he's going to present about the work of this committee.
Thank you, Michel. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. As you know, the board of directors sets the strategic orientations for the company, also in societal terms, and sees to it that they are implemented. The corporate social responsibility strategy, CSR strategy, is regularly discussed within the board. You heard that with the presentation by Patrick Koller. Sustainable development is a group priority, as illustrated by the validation by SBTi of our carbon neutrality trajectory, or another illustration, the fact that we joined the ESG CAC 40 index.
The work carried out internally on these topics are significant and impact all of the activities of the group. For instance, over 4,800 employees in the group already have a part of their compensation that is related to these CO2 objectives. We've also organized the first FORVIA Sustainability Day. This was a success. It showed. It's a diversified, international, and multidisciplinary board of directors, including 14 board members, including 2 representing employees. Out of these 14 board members, 5 women, i.e., 42% of board members, excluding board members representing employees, 6 nationalities and 75% of independent board members, excluding board members representing employees.
These board members provide the key skills and expertise to Faurecia. In 2022, the board and committees held 33 meetings, dealing with the finalization and the financing of the majority stake taken in HELLA, the CSR strategy of the group, and the management of the macroeconomic impact on our automotive industry of the current context. Since some terms of office will end after this general meeting, we will be presenting three resolutions for the composition of the board. We, therefore, propose to renew the term of office of Denis Mercier, and to appoint two new board members, Esther Gaide and Dr. Michael Bolle. Let's start with the proposal to renew Denis Mercier as independent board member. His current term of office is coming to an end.
We propose to renew it for a duration of four years. Denis Mercier has been a board member since 2019. He was a chief of staff at the French army, and he is currently a deputy chief executive officer and member of the executive committee of the Fives Group. He is also the Chairman of the Compensation Committee. I would like to thank Denis for accepting to support our company with a new term of office. We also propose to appoint Esther Gaide as an independent board member. She will be succeeding to Yan Mei, whose term of office comes to an end after this general meeting. She did not wish to renew it.
It was decided by the board, on a proposal by the Governance, Nominations and Sustainability Committee, to propose the appointment of Esther Gaide. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Yan Mei on behalf of the board, for her work over the past four years. Esther Gaide has a lot of experience in the field of audit and finance, and she has been a CFO in various international groups. If you so wish, Esther Gaide will be an independent board member and will become a member of the Audit Committee, and her term of office will come to an end at the end of the general meeting of 2027. Esther, would you like to say a few words to the rest of the assembly?
Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, good afternoon. I'm really pleased to be here today and to have the opportunity to meet you all. I'm honored of this proposal to approve a resolution appointing me as a board member and as a member of the Audit Committee. I'm a French citizen. I was born in 1961. I graduated from ESSEC. I'm a chartered accountant. I have 40 years' experience in finance in listed companies, Technicolor, Bolloré, Havas, and more recently Elior, which is also listed on the stock market. I left Elior six weeks ago with the intent to focus on my non-executive terms of office.
I'm the head of the Audit Committee for Selak, and I've also been a board member of another company for a few years now, and also a member of the Audit Committee. I'm fully aware of the responsibilities of a board member. I'm really excited and really pleased with this proposal, which was made by your board of directors, and I thank you in advance for your trust.
Thank you, Esther, for this presentation. We are now going to move on to the third proposal to appoint the board members. It is the proposal to appoint Dr. Michael Bolle as Independent Board Member. The term of office of Peter Mertens is coming to an end after the 2023 general meeting, and he didn't wish to renew it.
On the proposal of the Nomination Committee, we propose to appoint Dr. Michael Bolle as a new board member. I would like to thank Peter Mertens for his involvement and commitment over the past four years, and also for his precious contribution to the Compensation Committee. Michael Bolle has an extensive experience in the automotive industry, including in his work for the Bosch Group, where he was in charge of R&D. The term of office as a board member of Dr. Michael Bolle would end after the general meeting of 2027, and Dr. Michael Bolle would be joining the Compensation Committee member. Unfortunately, Dr. Michael Bolle could not join us today, but he recorded a video message, which I suggest we watch now.
Unfortunately, I'm unable to be physically present today at your company's annual general meeting. I want to assure you that I'm very proud to have been selected by the Board of Directors of Faurecia on April 14, 2023, on the recommendation of all relevant committees at the Governance, the Nominations, and the Sustainability Committee. I'm also proud that my appointment as an independent board member will be proposed to you today to succeed Dr. Peter Mertens. I'm a German national, born in 1961. I'm married and have four children. I received a master's degree in electrical engineering from the RWTH Aachen University in Germany, 1986, and earned a PhD in digital signal processing from the Ruhr University Bochum, as well, in Germany in 1992.
I'm very happy to bring to the board additional deep knowledge in the fields of digitalization, artificial intelligence, software, and IT. I've applied these technologies in the automotive industry and in international markets. I have worked at Bosch for over 25 years, assuming leadership roles in different business areas, most recently as an executive VP of engineering for Bosch Car Multimedia, then as president of worldwide corporate research and development, and finally, as a member of the board of management for Bosch in the roles of Chief Technology Officer and Chief Digital Officer. Currently, I'm chairman of the supervisory boards at Carl Zeiss AG and SCHOTT AG, as well as the chairman of the board of trustees of the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung, that represents the shareholders towards the Carl Zeiss AG and the SCHOTT AG.
The ZEISS Group is an internationally leading technology enterprise, working in the segments of semiconductor manufacturing technologies, industrial quality and research, medical technology, and consumer markets. I'm fully aware of the duties and responsibilities of directors, and I'm fully available to serve as a board member to your company. I'm very excited to be part of the new adventure of FORVIA, and to assist your company with my experiences as best as I can. Thank you very much for your trust, and I hope to meet you all in person very soon. Thank you.
This is the proposal for appointment of Dr. Michael Bolle as a board member. Now, we have a look at the composition of the board of directors after this general meeting is over. Taking into account the resolutions are submitted to your vote. We would still have 14 board members, including two representing employees. Excluding those board members representing employees, we would still have 77% of independent board members, illustrating the strong independence of these board members of this board of directors. Also 42% of women, and it, the, this board of directors will still be supported by the three committees presented on this slide.
First of all, the Audit Committee, chaired by Odile Deforges, in charge of risks and financial matters. Governance, Nominations, and Sustainability Committee, in charge of management in terms of office of the corporate offices, chaired by Jean-Bernard Lévy. Lastly, the Compensation Committee, which I chair myself, in charge of compensation for board members and corporate officers and in charge of sustainability. Jean-Bernard, I give you back the floor. Thank you very much. I would just like to echo the thanks made by Jean-Bernard to Mr. Mertens and Yan Mei. They supported relentlessly, our company for the past four years, so I would like to thank them warmly. I would like to give the floor to Denis Mercier as the representative from the Compensation Committee. Welcome, Denis.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, regarding compensations, we now have six resolutions submitted to your vote today. The first resolution is related to the approval of the compensation of board members. Board members received EUR 885,000 for 2022, out of a total of EUR 900,000. This is stable compared with last year because of the high number of meetings that were organized, including as part of the financing of the acquisition of HELLA, and also the number of economic challenges that your group has faced. The compensation policy for 2023 for board members, which is the second resolution, remains stable, no change, we compared with 2022.
Two resolutions are related to the Chairman of the Board of Directors. An ex-post resolution related to the compensation paid to Michel de Rosen for his activity for the fiscal year 2022, EUR 311,000, stable compared with the previous years. An ex-ante resolution related to the compensation policy for the Chairman of the Board of Directors for 2023. As previously indicated, the fixed salary is the only element of compensation for the Chairman of the Board of Directors. This fixed compensation has remained unchanged since 2017. The Chairman receives no other compensation, whether variable or exceptional. He neither receives any compensation for his function as a board member.
This resolution is directly related to his compensation. The ex-post resolution related to the CEO compensation for 2022, and an ex-ante resolution regarding the compensation policy for the CEO for 2023. The compensation paid to Patrick Koller in 2020 can be divided up into the following elements: a fixed annual compensation, EUR 1.1 million, stable compared with the previous year; an annual variable compensation, EUR 1.5675 million, stable with the previous year, which was strongly impacted with COVID and the semiconductor crisis. The situation is currently difficult in the automotive industry because of the shortage of semiconductors, because of the implications of the war in Ukraine and the impact of inflation.
Because of this, the quantifiable and qualitative criteria of the CEO compensation, as set by the board of directors and approved by the 2022 general meeting. Mainly, for 2022, these criteria have been approved, and they are in line with the group's priority. First of all, deleveraging, synergies coming from the acquisition of HELLA and carbon neutrality. All of these criteria were vastly reached. There is also another part of compensation, long-term variable compensation, as part of performance shares. This compensation is very much related to performance, as the changes over the years show.
As a reminder, in 2020 and 2021, the variable compensation amounted to EUR 300,000 and EUR 260,000, respectively. We also propose to approve the ex-ante CEO compensation for 2023, stable versus last year, and the structure and the amounts for each component remaining the same. As part of the implementation of the 2023 CEO compensation policy, the long-term targets for compensation will be adjusted to take into account the strategic priorities of the group, including in terms of environmental impact, of profitability, and cash generation. We are now coming to an end for compensation, I would like to give the floor back to our chair.
Thank you very much, Denis. I would now like to give the floor to Alain Rousselou from Mazars, on behalf of the College of Statutory Auditors, to give this presentation.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, on behalf of the Statutory Auditors, Ernst & Young Audit, and Mazars, I will present the reports that we've drawn up for your attention for the fiscal year 2022. We issued eight reports for the general meeting, one audit report for the annual accounts of Faurecia SE, one audit report on the consolidated accounts of the group, one report on regulated agreements, and five reports on resolutions 16 to 25 for the extraordinary part of your general meeting. I suggest to summarize the essential items in order of resolutions that you're going to be called on to vote during this shareholders' meeting. Regarding our report on the annual statutory accounts of Faurecia SE, we certified these accounts unreservedly and without observations. These accounts were prepared according to French accounting principles, and we considered, as key audit items, the assessment of participatory shares.
Regarding the consolidated accounts, they were prepared under the IFRS reference as adopted by the European Union. We certified these accounts unreservedly and without observations. The key audit points considered were the determination of assets and liabilities recognized as part of the acquisition of HELLA Group, the evaluation of the recoverable value of the goodwill, the booking and assessment of the recoverable value of development costs, and the recognition and recoverable aspect of deferred tax assets. Regarding our report on related party agreements, we were informed of two rural conventions with FORVIA, one on a licensing agreement and on a cooperative cooperation agreement. For the extraordinary part of your shareholders meeting, we issued reports for the following resolutions: Resolution 16 to 20 on the proposals of delegation to the Board of Directors for different share issues or securities issues, with or without preferential or subscription rights.
Resolution 22, related to the attribution of authorization to award free performance shares, existing or future shares. Resolution 23 on the issuance of ordinary shares or various securities of the company, reserved to members of the company savings plan. Resolution 24 on the issuance of shares and other capital securities, giving access to the company's capital without preferential subscription rights reserved to a category of beneficiaries. Finally, resolution 25 on a capital reduction. We have no observations to make on these operations, which follow the conditions of the French Commercial Code. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Rousseau. I would like to praise you for the clarity, the concision, and the positivity of your report. Let's move on to the questions. Let's take questions.
We received two questions in writing, governed by the French Commercial Code, to which the company provided answers that you can find on the shareholders meeting webpage of our internet website. Now we'll give the floor to shareholders who so wish to ask oral questions. Sir, please, just one comment before that, if you'll allow us. I would ask all shareholders asking questions to please introduce yourselves before asking your question. Mr., you have the floor.
Good afternoon. First of all, thank you for the clarity of your explanations, and Mr. Koller's presentation was not lengthy at all. It was quite exciting, in fact. My first question is about what you presented in terms of competition in seating. If I'm not mistaken, you said that you were a leader for seat structures, and you were also involved in assembly, and that leads me to the disposals that you made to AFE and Plastic Omnium. Is assembly still a priority now, or is it rather, Are you rather moving to other activities? It's true that with Faurecia, we were happy to be well seated.
Now we'll be well connected and well lit. I would also ask you about hydrogen. I was surprised by your presentation of the compact tank, because every time I took a look at this topic, I saw big tanks, very cumbersome, the aim of which was to go to heavy transport, such as trains or long-distance lorries. It seems now that you're targeting a different market segment with compact batteries that could eventually be used on passenger cars. Still on hydrogen, I am still highly interested in listening to professionals when it comes to the production of green hydrogen. My other question is on Peugeot.
Is this your last one?
Yes, after that, I would say. I would also be intrigued. I'll cut my list of questions on Aptoide. When you see that you're going to a market where there are already leaders, I'm quite surprised. I'm wondering about the fact that other car makers are getting closer to North American suppliers. My last question is really the last one: Are you involved after presentations by and announcements made by Mr. Tavares about the gigafactory in Saint-Fons, necessary, about the need to have two gigafactories in the U.S.? Thank you, sir. Obviously, you're quite well-versed in this sector. You're a professional.
Patrick is going to answer just as professionally. I'll start with the last question. It's the quickest one. We are not involved in the investments made in gigafactories. This is for battery production. We're not at all in this market segment. Competition on seating. You were talking about assembly and also about, I suppose, just-in-time activities. There are companies right now, just-in-time companies, that serve factories that are below 100,000 vehicles assembled a year. When you're at that level, it is very complicated to keep just-in-time activity. It's about sequenced, phased delivery that forces the just-in-time company to work at the exact rate set by the car maker. If you look at the life cycle of cars, with the variations that we've got and the production stoppages that we had, it gets very difficult.
I think that in Europe and worldwide, there will be just-in-time activities that will remain, but that will only be justified when we have car production volumes, probably several cars in the same plant, of at least 300,000. For volumes lower than that, I think, we need to think about something that would be modular. That's what we're offering our clients now. The production nomenclature for a seat includes roughly 120 lines. You can build a seat by clipping on dozens, about a dozen modules. This is the right alternative for smaller volume production. The conformable tanks, you're right. Cylinders right now are dedicated to heavy mobility. Mostly they are complicated to position inside a car. It doesn't work for a passenger car.
It barely works for light commercial vehicles, so we absolutely needed to find new solutions. What's interesting, is that for any case of an electric car and cars that will use hydrogen to produce electricity, will remain electric. What's interesting is to locate the tank in the compartment currently used for batteries, and that way you've got flexibility. All batteries, or hybrids batteries, plus hydrogen or hydrogen only. These conformables won't happen tomorrow. They'll be on the market after 2025. They'll be absolutely necessary for American SUVs. You can't imagine having cylinders in these cars. It wouldn't work out. You were talking about hydrogen, green hydrogen production. Fortunately, in Europe, we are more inclined to regulating application markets than infrastructure.
We are ready, with our technologies, to use hydrogen applications in mobility or in industry decarbonization, but we're lagging slightly behind on the production of green hydrogen. If you look at the American IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act, the amounts invested, injected into the production of green hydrogen, are considerably higher than what we've got. You could imagine, with a small margin of error, that the development of hydrogen mobility will first happen in the US. Aptoide, why Aptoide? Well, simply because both Apple and Google are very demanding about the ownership of data collected, and for us, Faurecia, with Aptoide, we're not so demanding. We're on a market that is very relevant and interesting for car makers because of this difference. We're not interested.
That doesn't mean that we're not interested in the data generated, but all the consumer-related data or user-related data are considered as personal data. That helps us stand apart, and that helps us make simpler choices for geographical areas. The mix of apps that we are offering in Brazil is different from the one in Argentina or the one that we'll offer in Asia, of course. I think I've answered all of your questions, I think, and I hope that you'll be comfortably seated and connected.
Thank you, Patrick. Ladies and gentlemen. Well, maybe first, the gentleman with blue shirt.
Daniel Lallier, I'm an individual shareholder. I wanted to come back to hydrogen. A few days ago, there was a show on TV that completely debunked hydrogen, and the conclusion was that hydrogen was a non-starter for car uses. Hydrogen, it costs a fortune, and green hydrogen, we don't have that. Keep in mind that green hydrogen is produced with electricity, and there's a simple figure from a given quantity of electricity. If you're driving with batteries or with hydrogen, well, with hydrogen, you're going to drive three times less. That's an economic non-starter. Why is it working now when you're saying that there's no money right now?
We've invested EUR 50 billion in Europe, you just need to look under a rock to find money. France invested EUR 12 billion, Germany, ditto, there's roughly EUR 50 billion for the hydrogen industry in Europe. In CSR, in all companies, you're talking about renewable energy. That's all well and good, but if you can't store it, renewable energy doesn't exist. Right now, we're building wind turbines everywhere, and the total is that Germany is the biggest polluter in Europe, and there's intermittency, and intermittency is very polluting.
Finally, one comment: you said that you have redeveloped front ends of the cars, locating radars there. It's not criticism, it's a fact, but in case of a crash, all that is going to be destroyed, and that's one of the first areas that will be hit, so that's going to be very expensive for insurance. We've also re-recognized that all electric cars are irreparable because of the fact, when in a crash, the battery is hit, and batteries cannot be repaired. It costs you a fortune, and there are even car makers that make sure that batteries cannot be repaired, and so the cost will be passed on to the price of insurance for electric cars.
Thank you. Thank you for your three comments, but are there questions in there? Green hydrogen, I don't believe in it at all, and I'm not isolated in that.
What's your question?
How do you justify being involved very strongly, and that's even one of your goals, when there's a lot of reluctance related to the cost of hydrogen and not including all the infrastructure and logistics that that's going to require? That's question number one. Then renewable energies, how are you handling intermittency, plugging into the grid, and getting the utilities to pay the bill? Then front ends, it's just a comment, as I said.
Well, regarding hydrogen first, the only technology that is zero emissions right now is electric technology. Okay? If you want to propel a car with electricity, you're storing this energy either in batteries or you're producing it with a fuel cell system. If you're looking at infrastructure, a number of studies, and I think that they all converge in the same direction, showed that it would be less expensive to invest simultaneously in both infrastructures, electric infrastructure and hydrogen infrastructure. The electric infrastructure is the most affordable and the easiest one to put in place in urban and very urban areas, and the hydrogen part would be the best suited for. Well, between two urban areas, in particular in the countryside. Earlier, you were talking about renewables, and so intermittent renewables need to be stored, and to stored this energy favorably, you can convert it to hydrogen.
You talked about yield. Well, the reality is that we're using solar energy, wind energy, and so the problem is not so much that of yield, but the cost. The cost of 1 kilo of hydrogen that you're going to use in your car. If the cost of hydrogen remains around between EUR 3 and EUR 5, we think that we can have hydrogen-based solutions that will be competitive between 2025 and 2030. We think that for 100 kW of energy, 100 kWh of energy, with 600 km range of hydrogen, the full system should not cost more than EUR 7,000. We think that at that level of cost, given what's happening with batteries and changes in battery technology, we should have a viable solution.
Let me take an example: if you imagine driving to the south of France in July and August, to have the same flow that you've got in a petrol station right now, you would need 62 quick charge stations. You can imagine what that means. You have logistical and infrastructure constraints related to pure electrification of vehicles, so we need to find a solution that will allow you to add flexibility to those systems. What's more, there are mobility items for which batteries are not working. For heavy mobility, it's very complicated. You're reducing the payload, and so that's an inconvenience. Same thing for trains. You can't have batteries on trains when it's not possible to electrify a line. I think that it's not something that will fully take over. Not at all. Nobody's saying that.
This is complementary, in fact. There are use cases where hydrogen will be preferred over the use of batteries. Are you talking about batteries or hydrogen? Nobody's saying that this is a cure-all. This is just one alternative for electrical energy storage, to electrical energy storage batteries. Sir, please, if you want to ask a question, you need to wait for a microphone, otherwise, the people listening online cannot hear you, and that would be a shame. Maybe, Patrick, there was a third question.
In case of crashes, grills.
First of all the sensors that we include in vehicles that are driver assistance needs to reduce the number of accidents, and that's really the issue for all these technologies that are on board. I don't think at all that there will be an extra cost for insurance companies. As I said, with onboard diagnostic systems now, we'll have what is exactly necessary in terms of parts replacements if there's a breakdown or a crash on a vehicle. That's not the case right now, as you know. In a very large number of cases, the garages that do your repairs are doing what they can, and they're attempting a number of things which, of course, increases costs and the downtime of vehicles. I don't think that there's any issue from that perspective. Thank you, sir.
If we could have a microphone over there, g o on.
I just have a question regarding semiconductors. I would like to have an update about the supply and the implications that the shortage of semiconductors had in 2022.
The situation is improving, but the crisis is not entirely over yet. I think that we can cover about the needs of 85 million vehicles, but no more. Just to illustrate what I just said, in our crisis management efforts, we had about 40-50 lines that were current, that were constantly on the verge of a stoppage. We are now down to about 15 lines, meaning that the crisis is not over yet, but we can manage it.
And, uh, when, uh, we are faced, uh, with a problem, uh, we can, um, adapt to it, uh, meaning that, uh, this is no longer detrimental to the automotive, uh, industry. That being said, once again, if we were at, uh, ninety million vehicles, I'm not sure. I'm not sure we would be able to handle that, uh, um, uh, level, uh, of demand. Uh, but, uh, for the, um, coming two years, I think that, uh, we'll have some additional capacities.
Thank you, Patrick. Uh, any other questions? Yes, sir. Uh, we will give you a microphone now.
Nicolas Moore, individual shareholder. I have, uh, three questions, and I'll try and be as brief as possible. Mr. Durand, you presented, uh, the, uh, change in, uh, operating margin in 2022 . When we look at the details in the document, we can see that the profitability in Europe has strongly declined. How can you explain this deterioration? Is it related to the inflation and not being passed through enough to European customers, or are there other issues? The two other questions are more directed to Mr. Koller. You talked about steer-by-wire and brake-by-wire. Do you think that the regulations in Europe will be updated quickly enough in order to take these breakthroughs into account? I have one last question related to eFuels, and that have just been added to EU regulations for 2035. Do you think that eFuels will be game changers or not? Very well.
I will start by the two questions that you asked me. Regarding regulations, you can hear carmakers talk about it regularly. The profitability of EVs right now is not at the same level as an ICE vehicle. We are faced with a problem of cost and pricing for customers. These vehicles are now more expensive, and including the cost of money, this increase has been over 30% in this time of crisis. This is significant. Everything that is done in order to reduce costs to meet the needs of our customers related to safety, but also CO2 emissions. We need to do everything we can in order to meet these expectations from customers.
We need to prove that these systems are reliable, but we also need to take into account that there are three competing regions in the world, China, the U.S., and Europe. I think that regulations will need to be quickly adapted in the near future. As I said earlier, starting on the 1st of July, eMirrors will be authorized in China. We'll see how long it takes for the U.S. and Europe to authorize them as well. Now, regarding e-fuels, the benefit of eFuels is that you can use them on an already existing ICE engine. However, this is not zero emissions. You emit pollutants, therefore, we do not meet the specifications that are imposed on us by the European Commission.
I think that this is an intermediate, interesting solution, but this would be a temporary solution. I also think that this could be an interesting opportunity for heavy mobility, because talking about price, e-fuels are far from being free, they are actually very expensive. I think that we should not place all of our eggs in the same basket. This would be a mistake. I think that we need to have various options available. Olivier? Regarding your question on profitability in Europe, you are absolutely right. Europe generated an operating margin of 1.5% in 2022, well below historical levels. In 2022, this is where we felt the biggest implications of the war in Ukraine, in Europe.
For a automotive supplier, there are two elements for profitability. First of all, volume, but also the way this volume is completed. What happened in March and April was a stoppage without any warning sign, and this was a really chaotic situation. It's true that in the first half of the year, our results were very difficult in Europe because of this. Secondly, in Europe, this is also where we have the strongest level of inflation, especially on energy prices, as we all know. Therefore, the level of profitability of Europe was abnormally low. We implemented some actions in order to improve our operational performance. We have also made effort in order to be more reactive.
Thirdly, this is where the synergy actions with the combination of Faurecia and HELLA will have the strongest impact. When Olivier talks of a stoppage in our internal in-house jargon, we talk about stop and go. What happened? Car makers were faced with massive shortages for cable harnesses, especially coming from Ukraine, and also for everything that is small, electromechanic, mechanical equipment, including commuters. This had a strong impact on car makers and then obviously impacted our own plants. When you have a just-in-time business and you work in a synchronized way, you cannot reduce your headcount. Your headcount works as all or nothing.
If you have employees, you need to pay them, and you need to handle the situation as best you can. There were some issues related to inflation that also generated stop and go, because some smaller suppliers could not keep up with the increasing costs. This was particularly cumbersome, especially starting at the end of February up until September. The situation was really complicated in Europe. Are those suppliers still in Ukraine, or were they relocated to other countries? Both. First of all, at first, they tried to find some alternative solutions by developing extra capabilities in all their locations.
Since September last year, a number of productions have gone back to Ukraine, especially in the west of the country. Obviously, we are not back to pre-crisis, pre-war levels. Production has resumed in Ukraine. Thank you.
Thank you, Patrick.
Yes, sir?
Just one last additional question. You talked about wind farms in Scandinavia. Does it, is it for your own energy consumption? Does it cover part of your needs, or do you sell back some of that energy?
Well, this is a PPA, so we buy green energy. We buy the equivalent of 650 GWh of electric energy, electric supply for our own needs. This covers two-thirds of our energy, electricity needs in Europe. I think this answers your question. Remy, would you like to add something? Rémi Daudin , who's sitting just behind you, is our expert, and he is also the head of MATERI'ACT, which we have discussed at length today.
Well, this is exactly what Patrick has said. We have two wind farms in Sweden, connected to the European grid, which we are connected to, and this covers a part of our energy needs in Europe for both Faurecia and HELLA. Please wait for the microphone. I understood that you bought some, right? This energy generated in Scandinavia will not necessarily fuel a plant in France, but the grids are connected, and you can check this flow on a connected app.
We are connected to this European grid, and those wind farms are connected to the same grid. You are absolutely right, sir. The power we use is not necessarily the one that is produced directly from these wind farms.
No other questions, ladies and gentlemen? No other questions. Patrick, Mr. Moore, who asked the last question, is a major player in the automotive industry and is well-versed into these topics. If there are no other questions, I would like to thank you for this discussion. Now I would like to ask Nolwenn Delaunay to lead the voting on resolutions.
Thank you, Michel. Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, first of all, I would like to remind you of the final numbers of participation. The number of present shareholders represented or voting by post represent 127,347,340,722 shareholders. Just as a reminder, for the resolutions for the ordinary general meeting, we need a simple majority of all of the votes of represented shareholders or of shareholders that voted by post. For the extraordinary part, this amounts to a majority by two-thirds, 139 million, 900,000 votes, and 104 million votes for the simple majority for the ordinary general meeting. Now, I invite you to take your voting device. It's quite user-savvy.
You need to press one to vote in favor, and two to vote against a resolution, and three for abstention. The entire text of the resolutions was published according to the legal deadlines, and they are available in our brochure, available on our website. I will therefore not read them entirely during the vote. Let's start the vote on resolutions, and let's start with the purview of the ordinary general meeting. The first resolution relates to the approval of the parent company financial statements for 2022. The vote is now open. The vote is closed. And the resolution is approved. Second resolution, related to the approval of the consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year 2022. The vote is open. The vote is closed. And the resolution is approved.
The third resolution relates to the approval of the allocation of the income of the fiscal year. The vote is open. The vote is now closed. The resolution is approved. The fourth resolution relates to the approval of two new related parties agreements that were mentioned by our Statutory Auditors. The vote is now open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved. The next three resolutions are related to governance. The fifth resolution concerns the renewal of Denis Mercier as board member of your company. The vote is open. The vote is now closed. The resolution is approved. The sixth resolution relates to the appointment of Esther Gaide as board member. The vote is now open. The vote is now closed. The resolution is approved. The seventh resolution relates to the appointment of Dr. Michael Bolle as board member.
The vote is now open. The vote is now closed. The resolution is approved. The next resolutions relate to compensation. The eighth resolution relates the approval of the compensation for corporate officers. The vote is open. The vote is now closed. The resolution is approved. The ninth resolution relates to the exposed vote on the compensation for 2022 of the Chairman of the Board of Directors. The vote is open. The vote is now closed. The resolution is approved. The tenth resolution relates to the exposed vote on the compensation for 2022 of the CEO. The vote is now open. The vote is now closed. The resolution is approved. The eleventh resolution relates to the 2023 compensation policy for board members. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved.
12th resolution, approval of the compensation policy for the Chairman of the Board of Directors. The vote is open. The vote is now closed. The resolution is approved. The 13th resolution relates to the compensation policy for the Chief Executive Officer. The vote is now open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved. The 14th resolution authorizes the Board of Directors to allow the company to buy back its own shares. The vote is open. The vote is now closed. The resolution is approved. We are now coming on to the resolutions review of the Extraordinary General Meeting, and we will start by the change of corporate name of Faurecia SE into FORVIA SE. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved, and the bylaws will be amended accordingly.
We are now switching on to the authorizations and the financial delegation, starting with the 16th resolution, delegation of authority to be granted to the board of directors to issue shares to increase the share capital of the company without preferential subscription rights. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved. 17th resolution: authorizing the board of directors to increase their share capital without preferential subscription rights through a public offering and or as compensation for securities as part of a public exchange offer. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved. 18th resolution: authorizing the board of directors to increase their share capital without preferential subscription rights through an offer exclusively targeting a restricted circle of investors. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved.
19th resolution: allowing the board of directors to increase the amount of issues provided for in the previous three resolutions under certain conditions. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved. 20th resolution: granting the board of directors to increase the share capital of the company without preferential subscription rights in order to remunerate contributions in kind of securities granted to the company. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved. 21st resolution: granting the board of directors to increase the company's share capital by incorporation of reserves, profits, premiums, or other amounts whose capitalization would be allowed. The vote is open. The vote is closed, and the resolution is approved.
22nd resolution: authorizing your board of directors to grant, for free, performance shares to employees and or corporate officers of the company. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved. 23rd resolution: authorizing your board of directors to increase the share capital with removal of preferential subscription rights for the benefit of members of a company or group savings plan. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved. 24th resolution: granting the authority to the board of directors to increase the capital with removal of preferential subscription rights in favor of categories of beneficiaries. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved. 25th resolution: authorizing the board of directors to reduce the share capital through the cancellation of share. The vote is open.
The vote is closed, the resolution is approved. The 26th and last resolution, purview of the ordinary general meeting, relates to powers for formalities. The vote is open. The vote is closed. The resolution is approved. All the resolutions have been approved. I'm now giving back the floor to our chair to close this meeting.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders. Some of you might think that this is quite tedious. When everything goes seamlessly, it is always a lot better than the opposite. I would like to thank all of the shareholders present here in person or following us remotely. I would like to thank all of the shareholders who took part in the approval of the and voting on the resolutions.
Thank you for approving those resolutions submitted to your decisions. I would like to thank Patrick, Olivier, and Nolwenn. Thank you for presenting this. I know that this requires a lot of preparation work, and I know that this information is really precious to you, really valuable to you. I would like also to thank the technical support team who organized this meeting. I know that this requires a lot of work. We have gone through all of the agenda. It is now 4:43 P.M. I will see you again next year. Thank you very much.