Hello, and welcome to the OPmobility 2024 Third Quarter Revenue. My name is Laura, and I will be your coordinator for today's event. Please note, this call is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen-only mode. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero, and you will be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to your host, Laurent Favre, Chief Executive Officer, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Yes, good morning, everyone, and very, very happy to welcome you to the presentation of the Q3 2024 revenue of OPmobility. Stéphanie Laval, who is with me here today, and I will present you the main facts and figures during the next 15-20 minutes before handing over to you for the traditional Q&A session. Following our very strong growth in revenue in the first semester of 2024 , OPmobility recorded again a strong growth in revenue in Q3 compared to 2023 . This solid performance demonstrates the quality of our order book, and we will come back to that later on, but also confirms that our strategy is very well adapted to the market consolidation, which remains for sure, very, very volatile.
If we have a look on the main facts and figures and numbers, first of all, we are very, very satisfied to post a growth of 4.7% compared to Q3 2023. This growth is mainly driven by our traditional business groups, exterior and modules. We are outperforming the market by 9.5 points. As you know, the market is decreasing by 4.8%, and it has to be noticed as well that all the business segments of OPmobility are outperforming the market, meaning that this outperformance is very balanced. We are growing in all the regions. That means we are growing in America, we are growing in Europe, and we are growing in Asia. Again, showing that our performance is very well balanced.
I want again to notice that the U.S. is remaining our biggest country in revenue since the beginning of 2024 and will be the engine of the growth of OPmobility in the coming years. Last, but not least, we are still very committed to carbon neutrality. You know that we are targeting Scope 1 and 2 carbon neutral in 2025 for OPmobility, and we have been very, very satisfied to be recognized by the MSCI ESG rating with an AA rating right now, replacing the A we had in the past. Now talking about the market and our performance in this market. On this slide, you can see OPmobility growth compared to market development during the first quarter, second quarter, and third quarter.
As you can see, we have been able to outperform the market each quarter, 4.5 points in the first quarter, close to 4 points in the second quarter, and in the third quarter, we are talking about today, 9.5 points. That means the outperformance of OPmobility is confirmed and is even increasing during the year. The market is for sure strongly impacted by a slowdown in EV sales. That is mainly the case in Europe, but also by high inventory levels in Europe, but especially in North America. And that is the reason why Q3 was pretty low in terms of production. But again, we have been able to outperform this slow market at OPmobility.
We are outperforming the market in Q3 by 9.5 points, as I mentioned before, and we are outperforming the market for the nine months of 2024 by 5.7 points. And therefore, we are very confident to meet our 2024 objective, which is to outperform the global market. And as you can see, we are well on track, and we will continue as well in Q4. Again, this outperformance is due to the quality of the order book. We have been talking a lot about the order book of 2023 , 2022 , 2021 , which is now transforming into sales. That is the quality in terms of size of the order book, but quality also in terms of diversification, customers, and geographies.
Again, also, this outperformance is demonstrating that our historical businesses, our three historical business groups, exteriors, C-Power, and modules, are number one in their respective markets, but are able to continue to gain market share, which is also a target of OPmobility, to develop new activities, but to consolidate and to continue to develop historical activities. Those activities, the historical one, are driving the outperformance of OPmobility in Q3 2024. Now, if we have a look on our outperformance by region, I mentioned before that we are extremely pleased to see that we are growing in all the regions. I think it is really important as the market is consuming, to have a balanced strategy. I'll start with Europe, which is our home market as you know.
Europe is strongly declining in Q3 by close to 7%, but we are growing. We are growing in Europe. We are continuing to grow in Europe, which is also very important, which is again demonstrating our capacity to gain market share, and therefore our outperformance in Europe is more than 11 points. To be noticed as well that Europe is now representing 48% of our revenue, it was 60% in the past years. Second region I want to highlight is North America. And North America as well, strong growth, strong outperformance, 11.8 points, 30% of revenue. And the growth of OPmobility in North America is also driven by our module business, our factory, our new factory in Austin, Texas, but also by our activity in interiors, both in U.S. and also in Mexico.
As mentioned before, U.S. is the biggest country of the group in terms of revenues, and we'll consolidate each position in the coming years. Now to go to Asia. Asia as well, a strong growth and a strong outperformance. We will talk about China in the next minutes, but to be noticed as well that the biggest countries in Asia outside of China for OPmobility are India and Korea and South Korea. And in both countries, we are growing a lot, and we are building up capacity for the future in India as well. Now focusing on China. For China, we are in line with the market in the third quarter, but with a different situation by business group.
Our traditional business, C-Power, is for sure suffering from the electrification in China, therefore it's underperforming the market. Nevertheless, we do see more and more PHEV activities in China, hybrid, which are giving us a lot of opportunities for C-Power as well. Therefore, we're pretty confident that we will be able to grow the C-Power business in China in the coming years by focusing on PHEV business. For the exterior business, our joint venture with YFPO, having more than 20% of the market in China, is outperforming the market in Q3, is continuing to book orders with the winners of today. And we have very, very nice commercial successes, for example, with BYD in the third quarter for plastic tailgate.
I hand over now to Stéphanie, and Stéphanie will talk a bit more about the details of the revenue in Q3 compared to last year.
Thank you, Laurent, and good morning, everyone. Let's now focus on consolidated revenue for the third quarter of 2024. In Q3, OPmobility posted total consolidated revenue of EUR 2.5 billion. As you can see on the chart, revenue is up +2.9% in Q3 2024, compared to Q3 2023. This includes an FX effect of -EUR 23 million, notably on the U.S. dollar and Argentine peso. Excluding this FX effect, the revenue is up by 3.9% on a like-for-like basis. All business segments outperformed the automotive production in Q3 2024, and it is also the case for the first nine months.
Now, looking at each segment, first, exterior systems, including exterior and lighting business groups, is down 4% like-for-like in Q3, but remains stable over the first nine months, with different evolution between exterior and lighting. First, so exterior, which is the production of exterior parts, mainly bumpers and tailgates, managed to post a solid performance despite the challenging context, thanks to the strong order book recorded in the recent years and new launches. This performance is mostly offsetting the anticipated decrease in lighting revenue, which is in line with group expectations. I remind you that it's due to a lower order book for lighting prior to its acquisition by OPmobility two years ago. What is important for lighting is that it continues to record a good level of order intake above revenue, which will contribute to secure its future growth.
Modules consolidated revenue is close to EUR 800 million in Q3 2024, with the highest like-for-like growth rate of the quarter at +23%. The group saw a significant rise in volume in North America, boosted by the module plant in Austin, Texas, that has started its activity a year ago. In Europe, the group also benefited from the increase in modules assembled in Czech Republic and Slovakia for both Volkswagen and Skoda. Moving to the powertrain segment. Among this segment, the ICE activity continues to consolidate its leading position in the market, where electrification is progressing, but not as fast as anticipated. For the hydrogen activity, H2 Power, the group has continued to book new orders since the beginning of the year, particularly in China and in Europe, for railway and mobility.
Let me now comment on the Q3 business highlights, starting first with Exterior on the left of the slide. This business group benefits from a strong order book recorded in the past. Exterior is reinforcing its positioning towards new EV players, like Rivian, for the production of front and rear bumpers for the SUV R2. Moreover, it represents a further step in the group's strategy of increasing its position in the North American region. Exterior benefits also from recognition from its customers. As an example, for the third consecutive year, the San Luis Potosí plant in Mexico received the General Motors Supplier Quality Excellence Award, reflecting OPmobility's successful long-term partnership with the American OEM. This award recognize our commitment to meeting and exceeding rigorous production and delivery standards. You can see on the slide some of the key launches for Exterior in Q3 2024 .
I would like to highlight the key launch in India for Mahindra Thar Roxx AX5, for front and rear bumpers and for grille. With a strong positioning in India, the group addresses the growing demand for automotive parts. This year, the group started to build a new plant in Pune. This new plant will be the group's largest in the country, and will supply exterior body systems to the Indian automotive market. It will allow OPmobility strengthen its leading position in this country. Moving to Lighting business group. OPmobility continues to focus its efforts in the acquisition on optimizing resources and improving industrial performance. As already announced, revenue is slowing down in 2024 due to lower order book prior to its acquisition by OPmobility in 2020 .
At the same time, the group is working on securing new order intake in best-cost countries, like, for example, in Mexico, to produce headlamps for a new EV player and for Stellantis for the Ram ProMaster. The 2024 order book for lighting is expected to be significantly above revenue, reflecting the high level of customer confidence and ensuring the lighting business' future momentum. Moving to Modules, on Slide seven. The action plan started end of 2023, is already delivering promising results, with a strong improvement of the revenue in 2024. I want to highlight the strong performance of our team. Modules revenue is up plus 24% on a like-for-like basis in Q3 2024 compared to Q3 last year. This business group continues to diversify its customer mix with new EV players models.
Moreover, as previously mentioned, the strong performance since the beginning of the year is mainly due to, first, a strong increase in revenue from our plant in Austin, Texas, reinforcing our presence in this region with a key EV player. And second, an increase in volumes in Czech Republic and Slovakia for Skoda and Volkswagen. In addition, order intake remains robust, and the business group has been awarded in Q3 2024 by a South Korean OEM for the production of front-end modules and carriers. You will see on the right side of the slide some key launches for modules this quarter, highlighting our geographical diversification. Skoda in Czech Republic for front-end modules for the Karoq and Octavia, Stellantis in Mexico for active grille shutter for the Ram 2500, and Chery in Malaysia to produce cooling modules. Last but not least, the powertrain segment.
In this segment, we address all types of powertrains, from ICE to hydrogen mobility. C-Power ICE business continues to consolidate its leading position. Over the first nine months, 2024, this activity posted stable revenue on a like-for-like basis compared to last year. The group pursue its strategy of last man standing by consolidating in regions where the shift towards electrification is progressive, such as North America or China. In parallel, the group continues to benefit from the start of production in different countries, like in Morocco, with Dacia, Sandero, and Logan to produce fuel systems. Regarding the hydrogen activity, H2-Power, it has continued to record orders since the beginning of the year, securing its future growth. In addition to the current business with Alstom, the group has signed an award with CRRC, the world-leading Chinese rail manufacturer, for a long-term partnership to develop hydrogen mobility solutions.
Furthermore, last July, OPmobility signed a contract with Stadler, the Swiss rail manufacturer, to equip hydrogen-powered regional trains in Italy with high-pressure hydrogen storage systems and fuel cells. These various contracts confirm our confidence that hydrogen is key to decarbonize EV mobility and strengthens the group's position as a global leader in hydrogen mobility. In a context marked by some delays in hydrogen programs, the group is adapting by deploying gradually production capacities to the volume ramp-up. The start of production of our hydrogen plant in Lachelle, France, is planned by the end of the year to produce high-pressure vessels for Stellantis and Kia. It will be Europe's largest capacity plant in hydrogen. Let's now talk about sustainability main achievements moving forward on our roadmap targets.
Last August, MSCI ESG Ratings awarded the group with AA rating, previously rated A, ranking OPmobility in the category leader and among the top 10% of worldwide auto suppliers. MSCI focused on the group's strength in social areas, notably the annual employee engagement survey and training programs. The steady improvement in the group's workplace accident frequency rate, with and without loss time, was also noted. It stood at 0.53 at the end of September 2024, down on last year and already close to the 2025 target of 0.5, despite the integration of new activities like lighting in recent years. The group's ongoing environmental responsibility efforts were highlighted, particularly the commitment towards our technologies to decarbonize mobility through hydrogen and battery electrification solutions. In addition to MSCI AA rating, OPmobility has improved a large part of its ESG commitment in 2024.
The highest CDP rating of A, the renewal by EcoVadis of the group's platinum status, and the C+ ESG rating by ISS, making the group one of the leaders of our industry. Thank you for your attention. Now, I hand over back to Laurent for the last part of the presentation.
Yeah, thank you very much, Stéphanie. We wanted also to highlight again the, I would say, the success of our strategy, meaning that we are growing in a declining market. We are outperforming the market in all the regions. We are outperforming the market in all the business units. And our aim since some years is to try to benefit from the market consolidation, and I will try again to explain why, how we are doing that, sorry. And we are doing that with our strategy, which is basically based on three pillars, and that is what you can see on the slide. First of all, technologies. Second, geographical diversification, and then customer portfolio.
Talking about technologies first, I want again to highlight the fact that 75% of our product portfolio doesn't depend on the powertrain. That is, these are the exterior businesses, lighting business, and module business, which is giving us a kind of stability, again, not depending on the powertrain evolution. Then, when we talk about technology, in the recent years, we have been investing a lot in developing new technologies like, for example, lighting, making the acquisition of module or developing as well hydrogen. And we are convinced that those investments will bring us middle and long term a lot of opportunities in term of growth.
We do see more and more, I would say, a willingness or motivation from our customers to work on complete integrated solutions for exterior parts, meaning integrating lighting into the bumpers and potentially with the modules on top, which is making the offering of OPmobility unique on the market. Therefore, those technologies will bring us, in middle long term, a lot of growth opportunities. Talking about geographies. As mentioned before, the group is pretty exposed to Europe with 50% of the revenue. It was 48% in the third quarter, and we know that Europe won't be the growth engine for the coming years. We have noted before that we are growing in Europe in spite of the market decline.
But for sure, we want to over-invest outside of Europe, again, to continue the growth journey of OPmobility. We are targeting the U.S., where we have a lot of opportunities in terms of market share in all the businesses, starting with exterior, but also modules. In the powertrain business, we are consolidating heavily the market in North America. Therefore, U.S. will be the biggest growth engine of OPmobility. Nevertheless, we continue to develop also other countries. As Stéphanie mentioned before, we are setting up a new facility in Pune, in India, which is going to start the production by the end of next year, and probably more to come in India.
But we are also doubling the size of our Kenitra facility in Morocco, again, to be where the market is developing and to benefit from the market growth. If we look on our order book, the order book is pretty balanced in terms of geographies, because it's one-third in Europe and two-thirds outside of Europe, which does reflect more or less the weight of the different regions in the world of the automotive production. Last but not least, the customer portfolio. We are insisting on that, but that is very important, again, to remain very strong with our traditional OEMs. And you know that our biggest customers are the Volkswagen Group and the Stellantis Group.
We are able to gain market share with Volkswagen and Stellantis, but as you know, they are suffering from the electrification right now, and therefore, for us, it is to develop new players. We've been talking a lot about Austin, Texas, about the Tesla business. We are developing more and more the business with the Rivian as well, and regarding the Chinese OEMs, we are very strong in China, but we are becoming stronger as well with the winners, like, for example, BYD, and BYD is working very closely with us right now to develop and produce plastic tailgates. They don't have the know-how in-house, and they are going to plastic for their tailgates of the future. That is helping us on short and middle term.
medium to long term, it is also important for us to develop other areas of mobility. That is what we are doing with hydrogen and electrification, with, for example, what we have been talking about before, meaning railway business with Alstom, with Stadler, with CRRC in hydrogen, but also in electrification. Again, what is happening right now in the market, meaning this transformation, the shift by geography, the winners and the losers in terms of customers, is confirming that we have the right strategy. That is what you can see on this slide, meaning a very balanced strategy in terms of technologies, in terms of geographies, but also in terms of customer portfolio. Now, coming back to 2024 , for sure, the market is very challenging in 2024 , as we all know.
You can see on the left part of the slide that S&T, after having improved or increased its expectations for 2024 in terms of production volumes in April, at this time, they were forecasting 87.4 million cars being produced this year. It is revised massively down during the last months, and in the meantime, we lost 1.7 million cars being produced according to S&T. And for sure, that is a challenge for the complete industry. That is a challenge as well for OPmobility, which is mainly coming from the slowdown of the BEV penetration worldwide, especially in Europe, but also for the inventory level in North America, which is negatively impacting the production right now.
Therefore, the market remains challenging. We adapt. We are very, I would say flexible. We are very agile. We are working permanently on our efficiency, on our competitiveness, on our cost base, on our breakeven point, because we are convinced that on long term, competitiveness and agility will be the key success factors besides the technology factors we are working on. And because we are able to adapt our capacities and we are able to adapt our footprint and our organization and our breakeven point, we confirm our guidance for 2024 , meaning an outperformance of the automotive production, but also the improvement of all financial aggregates compared to 2023 , meaning operating margin, net results, free cash flow, and net debt.
It's time now to conclude before handing over to you. Again, we are very pleased to post those numbers today, meaning that we are growing. We are growing in a very challenging market, that means we are outperforming strongly in the market. We are more and more balanced in term of regions, but also in term of customers. We have historical businesses which are becoming stronger and stronger. That means they are able to consolidate their respective market, to gain market share, which is very promising for the future of the company, and this is helping for sure also to finance the diversification of the group. The order intake remain at very high level. We know that we post very high level of order intake in the last three years.
We are continuing on this path. We are becoming more and more selective because we are confident that we will be able to grow in the coming years. And therefore, we are confirming our guidance in this very challenging market environment. I want to use the opportunity as well to thank the OPmobility team, fantastic team. Again, being able to manage both the short and the long term. Short term meaning being agile, working on competitiveness, working on our cost structure, and long term, it's developing new customers, developing new markets, and developing new technologies. That was for our presentation, and now we are pleased with Stéphanie to answer your question.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. We will now take our first question from Thomas Besson of Kepler Cheuvreux. Your line is open, please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. I have a couple of questions, please. Can you say a few words about the lighting business turnaround, and whether you're still happy with the 2027 mid-single digit margin prospects? And shorter term, talk about the scenario you're assuming for 2025, because I think your exposure to BEV players is quite high. When do we start seeing the first revenues from the order intakes that you have generated yourself, rather than the one you inherited? That's first topic.
And the second, we've heard of automakers, I think, changing tone from everything is awesome, we are making 10% margin and generating 10 billion free cash flow to it's becoming quite complicated now, and we need to turn every stone to reduce costs. Can you talk about the evolution of your relationship with your clients, and whether you believe this will still remain a fair game, or whether you think they are going to be going into an accelerated mode in terms of cost saving efforts with the suppliers group, their most obvious target? Thank you.
Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Thomas. First of all, regarding the lighting, we are confident with our mid-single digits, 2027, as you mentioned before. As you know, we made the acquisition of lighting two years ago right now. There were two targets. One is because we are convinced lighting is a growing business long term, and we are booking orders. Therefore, it is a growing business long term. Stéphanie mentioned before that the level of order intake is very dynamic right now. We are gaining market share, and that's good.
The second target was for sure to bring lighting closer to the interior business and to be able to offer something on the market which is new, which is unique, and that is also what we are developing with most of our customers. And that will be an additional, I would say, a growth opportunity for OPmobility in the coming years. Therefore, confident for the mid-single digit 2027 . The order intake of OPmobility started basically in the second half of 2023 , you know, that we made the acquisition in October 2022 . The first target was to stabilize the operation, to gain confidence from our customers that we are able to manage that, which was done.
Starting from second semester of 2023, we have been booking many, many orders. Normally, there is around three years' time between order book and production in lighting, meaning that we will see really the effect of the orders in the second semester of 2026. Therefore, we predict 2025 being more or less stable in terms of revenue for lighting. And 2026, we should grow mainly the second semester of 2026. Again, basically from the order book, and then it will continue to grow, yeah, all the years after 2026. We are very confident about that. Regarding the relationship with our customers, and I think I understood who you are referring to.
I don't want to say I don't believe that the relationship with our customers is massively changing. I think in the last years, the relationship was very tense because it was, I would say, unbalanced between their profitability, their capacity to partially reduce production, but to increase prices. And I really believe now it's becoming more balanced. Therefore, most of our customers they are again targeting volumes, which is very important. In the past, they were saying, "I prefer value than volumes." Now they all go back to volumes, because they do see that without volumes, it's difficult to create value on long term, especially for mass market.
Therefore, they will do everything they can to increase the volumes, which is basically good for us, and more balanced as well, because, yes, for sure, they are suffering. Like, the automotive industry is also, I don't want to say suffering, but it is being challenged. And, and I think they need us. They need us, first of all, to maintain the supply chain alive. There are many small suppliers suffering a lot, and, and we are protecting our customers from that. And, I think they are very positive about the job we are doing to protect them. Therefore, that is something they do recognize as well.
And also, because we are working with newcomers which are successful, which are posting profits, our traditional OEMs, they tend to try to collaborate closer with us, to adapt also their way of working, their way of designing products, their way of being faster, I would say, in the development time, again, to learn and to adapt. And in a way, we can also bring them value and show them what we believe they should do differently to become better. Therefore, I don't want to say it's becoming an easy life, but I really believe that, again, they will push on volumes, which is good for everybody.
They need us to protect them because of the supply chain situation, and we are very, very, very solid, I would say, and they need us as well to try to find new ways for them to be more competitive, and being more competitive is not only about negotiating new prices, it's also about working differently, and therefore, we have a balanced situation at the end of the day. Still having very intense discussion on compensation for volumes, but also posting very strong out of pay, order intake and gaining market share with our traditional OEMs.
Thank you.
Thank you. And we will now move on to our next question from Michael Foundoukidis of Oddo BHF. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, Laurent. Hi, Stéphanie. So three questions on my side. So first one, even though you unsurprisingly described the market as challenging, you seem less concerned than Valeo management a couple of days ago. So could you tell us exactly if you noticed any particular deterioration in the past weeks? And if yes, why are you less worried than some of your peers? Second question is on modules. I mean, I know it's not an earnings call, but what can you tell us about your pricing performance in modules in the high growth context we are seeing? Maybe for H2 and looking ahead in 2025. And last one, last small one on hydrogen.
I mean, you already commented in the past months about some SOPs delays and investments being postponed as a result, but could you give us a bit more color regarding the financial implications? Thank you.
Thank you, Michael. I mean, first of all, as you know, we don't like to comment what our competitors are, or our peers are saying. Do we see a huge deterioration on the market since two or three weeks? No. I think we know since many months that the market is challenging, that it's a combination of electrification not developing as fast as expected for many reasons, but mainly because of price reason and less subsidies, as we all know in Europe. And we also know that inventory level in the US is pretty high. It's also not new, huh? We noticed that at the end of the first semester.
Therefore, if you remember, we said we were pretty cautious at the end of the first semester regarding the second semester, because because we noticed that everybody, that the inventory level in the U.S. was pretty high, meaning that there was a potential, I would say, risk in term of production for the second semester. Therefore, what should happen is happening right now. The market is not improving, but it's not a huge surprise for us. And for sure, we have some customers delaying some start of production, but we don't see any major news right now compared to one month ago. It's the same trend that what we had at the end, sorry, of the first semester.
Regarding modules, as mentioned by Stéphanie before, we are very satisfied about the turnaround of the module business, which was suffering a lot last year for many, many reasons. We know that we have been changing a lot of things, starting with the management in modules. We had an operating margin in, much stronger in the first semester this year, than the second semester last year. It was 2.2% in the first semester, it was 1.6% last year in the second semester. And we do expect at least a similar level in the second semester. Sure, module is continuing this transformation.
is continuing to benefit from the growth we have in Austin, which is a very, I would say, a very good business for us, and continuing as well to work on its cost structure. Therefore, second semester should be at least as good as the first semester for modules. You know that for modules, we target always around 3% margin. That is, structurally what we can aim for. It's a business which is generating free cash flow, which is a very low invest. Therefore, the ROIC is very high. In terms of margin, 3% is benchmark. And between now and 2026, we will achieve the 3%. 2025 will be a step in between.
Regarding H2, H2, it's, I would say it's a, it's a mixed picture. It's a bit like the electrification, meaning that, in some, in some areas, in some markets, there is, there are projects being postponed. The good news is, all the truck makers, all the heavy-duty players, they are going to, to hydrogen. There was a couple of weeks ago, the IAA Transportation in Hannover, and we have been talking with all the customers, all the truck makers again, and they all have vehicles with hydrogen, starting between 2028 and 2030, to be in line with, the target from Europe in, 2030. That is a fact in Europe, and we are working with all of them, for it will come.
But as you mentioned before, some of our customers have been delaying their start of production by one or two years. Meaning for us, we continue to gain market share, which is important, because, again, we are convinced this business will be bringing a lot of value to OPmobility in the coming years. But we need to adapt our investment pace. Therefore, we are investing much less than expected. We had announced last year to build up a big factory in the U.S. in 2026. It will be postponed to 2028, 2029. And we will start delivering the U.S. market out of the new factory we are building up in France. It's what we are doing, we invest in France.
We will start production with Stellantis and Kia, and out of France, we deliver U.S. as well, until the capacity is fully utilized, and then we build up capacity in North America. Therefore, we don't stop hydrogen, for sure. We gain market share, but we adapt our pace of investment to the reality of the market.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, and we will now take our next question from Ross McDonald of Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi there. Thank you. Good morning. Two questions from my side. Firstly, on modules, just be useful, I think, to understand the sort of sequencing, let's say, for the outperformance versus light vehicle production over the next few quarters. You've obviously posted very strong 20% outperformance, plus versus LVP this quarter. Should we expect similar magnitudes of outperformance over the coming two or three quarters for that division? That's question number one. Thank you.
I answer the question, number one. Module, yes, is strongly outperforming the market. A big part of this outperformance is coming out of the U.S., out of Austin, Texas. It's a new factory. We started the production last year in September, October, but it was, I would say, slow volumes. And the real ramp-up was happening at the beginning of this year. Therefore, for sure, by definition, we have much more turnover this year than what we had last year. Next year, we'll see again the strong growth in module in North America, in Austin, in Texas. Because it's a customer, I mean, you know the customer, but they have launched a huge SUV.
Now the volumes are pretty stable, are increasing, and we will launch a new vehicle, a new model, cheaper next year. Therefore, it should boost the production as well, and they are also producing in this factory the best-selling car in the world, and they will launch a new model or facelift by end of this year. Therefore, next year should also be benefiting from that. Therefore, module, we are confident that we will continue to strongly outperform the market. The outperformance is not only coming out of the U.S., it was mentioned by Stéphanie before. We have put in place new capacity in Eastern Europe for Skoda and for Volkswagen, which will continue also to outperform the market in the coming years.
Therefore, to your question, yes, we will continue to outperform the market. Modules is also very important for our customer intimacy. Because we are working so closely to those customers, we are able to develop new opportunities for the other business groups, and that is what we are very confident to transform as well in the coming months. Therefore, not only from modules, but for the other business groups to outperform with these customers.
That's very helpful. Thank you. Second question, just picking up on your slides and, you know, number of new product launches coming out of Mexico. How should we think about... Obviously, we have a U.S. election coming up next week, and some of the narrative around that election is maybe promoting U.S.-produced cars over imports. How should we think about your preparedness, if we see, let's say, tariff barriers rising on Mexican imports, and how do you think about that issue? Thank you.
No, I think for sure it's a question everybody's asking: is what could be the impact of the American election on the market? All in all, we don't believe that we'll be reaching back. If you have a look on the last 10 years, we had different administrations in the U.S., and there was no major change in the production. I think the U.S. market needs Mexico as well, production, and because Mexico is very competitive in terms of cost, as you know, because unemployment in the U.S. is really low. Therefore, I don't believe there will be a major change, at least for the American OEMs producing in Mexico, in the capacity to export. Therefore, we don't see that as a risk or as a new opportunity.
It won't change massively. We are continuing to develop our business in Mexico. It's a growing country, but also the U.S., therefore we are pretty balanced.
Thank you.
Thank you. We will now take our next question from Akshat Kaka of J.P. Morgan. Your line is open, please go ahead.
Morning, Laurent. Akshat from J.P. Morgan. Three questions from my side, please. The first one is an outlook for European production. In your prepared remarks, you have clearly called out the volatility that you're seeing in schedules. Yes, they haven't picked up in the last few weeks, but there are definitely delays in product launches. You've talked about uncertainty around CO2 targets next year. So how should we think about your expectations for European production in the second half? Is it different from S&P meaningfully? And how are you planning for the business as we go into the first half next year? That's the first question. The second question is on your 2024 targets. The underlying operating environment is just getting more tricky and more volatile. So if you could just help us, please, in formulating a more clearer view on the second half.
How should we think about revenue development, probably second half versus first half, or even year-on-year? And in this environment, can you maintain a 4% operating margin at the group level in the second half, please? And the last question is on your North American business. One of your major German customers is having to adjust production to manage a big product recall issue. You obviously have a big dedicated plant in the U.S. that produces SUVs for them. Can you please talk about the near-term impact on operations, and if there is something we should be mindful of in the second half? Thank you.
Thank you, Akshat. I don't know if I should thank you for those questions, but at least they are very, very challenging and also very interesting. European production, I mean, S&P is planning a huge decrease by 8% in the European production. Frankly speaking, that is more or less what we be seeing as well. But the European production is suffering a lot for how many reasons I have been talking about before. Again, I want to notice, Akshat, that we are growing less than what we would have loved to grow, you know, because the market is very challenging, but we are growing. Therefore, we are continuing to work on our cost structure.
We are reducing the headcounts in some countries as well, again, to become more agile, to become more flexible, and to become even more competitive. But even if the market is declining, we are growing in Europe compared to last year. Therefore, our main target is always to gain market share. So not only to accept that the market is declining, but also to gain market share, to try to compensate the production. Therefore, yes, the market in Europe is suffering a lot. What do we think about 2025 ? I think there are many, many open questions on the table. The first one is the CAFE 2025.
As you know, the new regulation in Europe, which may impact the production volumes in Europe. If we assess today what we believe the market will be in Europe in 2025 , I would say it will be similar in 2024 . From one side, we do see new products being launched by our customers, the ones we have been seeing in Paris, for example, BEV, which are more affordable and potentially more attractive. Therefore, it should help for the European production in Europe. And we know that our customers, they need to become more electric by next year.
From the other side, we also know that the inflation is still impacting the capacity of the people to buy new cars. Therefore, all in all, we believe that European production should be more or less stable next year compared to this year. Nevertheless, we are working on different scenarios, but we will see what will happen. But again, I believe it will be more or less stable next year. We will reduce our breakeven point next year in Europe. Therefore, we will be ready anyway for all kinds of scenarios, and I'm confident that we'll be able to grow in Europe next year again significantly. Margin in H2, we will see, but it will be better than in H2 last year.
Again, we are continuing to grow. We are continuing to outperform. Our businesses are all improving. It's challenging for sure, but the businesses are improving. We will have, in the second half of this year, lower SG&A than what we have this quarter of last year, in terms of cost-... The labor costs are maintained at a similar level. Therefore, the margin should be better than in the second semester of 2020. Now, if you refer to this famous customer, I think you refer to the BMW. Yes, we have a big business dedicated to the BMW in the U.S., and this business doesn't suffer from the recall you mentioned before.
We did not lose any production because of that in the U.S. for BMW.
That's very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. And we will now take our next question from Christoph Laskawi of Deutsche Bank. Your line is open, please go ahead.
Good morning, thank you for taking my question as well. The first one will be a bit of a follow-up to Marc's question. On the EV volumes, which maintain to be lower than previously anticipated now for almost a year, and you are negotiating compensations with the OEMs. Do you expect those compensations to continue into 2025? Are you debating that as well? Or would you say after one year of adjustments in the footprint that you've made and using flexibility, those compensations for lower volumes will be off the table from the OEM side for now? That's the first question, and then the second question, just on China: When do you expect your customer mix and also the product mix with more PHEV coming basically in your business in China to drive outperformance? Should that be-
I think we lost you. Christoph?
His line dropped.
Oh. Maybe I answer the first question, and the second question I try to answer even if it was not finished. I mean, regarding EV volumes, again, we have been talking about that since more than one year now, and mentioning that, basically, the global EV volumes are around 60% below the expected volumes. If I look on all our customers, and I think you are used to see that and to hear that. For sure, we are working on two kind of actions. The first one is to work on our cost base, to be flexible, to be agile, to reduce our costs, to adapt to these low volumes.
But from the other side, as we cannot compensate everything, with the cost structure, there are commercial discussions ongoing, with our customers in 2024, and I'm sure it will continue in 2025 as well, depending on the volume situation. Some commercial discussion we had were sustainable, I mean, meaning that it's a kind of repricing, and it should have a positive effect, on long term as well for 2025, and the other ones we will have next year, depending on the volume situation. But, we won't be able to compensate everything only, only with the flex measure, but to compensate 50% drop, by working the cost structure.
Therefore, it will be a mix of both, as we are doing in 2024. Regarding China, I will answer the PHEV, but first of all, I want to highlight that in the order book in China, we are 50% with Chinese OEMs. Therefore, the share of Chinese OEMs is becoming bigger and bigger, which is giving a lot of confidence that we'll be able to adapt again to this market. Again, it's important for me to mention as well, we are strong in China. We want to remain strong in China, but we don't want to be too dependent on China.
It's a very competitive market, a very challenging market, and as you know, the Chinese OEMs, big part of them, they will start building factories outside of China, or they will accelerate that. Meaning that it may impact the local production in the coming years, and that's why we want to be there, but not to be too exposed to China. The PHEV market in China is the biggest growth market for China. It's even stronger than the EV market, pure EV market. And today, we are not benefiting from that. We have many programs with many OEMs, many Chinese OEMs, which are launching new generation of PHEV, and it should help us starting 2026, 2027, for the C-Power business.
We will do, I would say, to start again to grow in China.
Thank you, and sorry for the bad line. That was exactly what I was after. Thanks.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. That was our last question. I will now hand it back to Laurent for closing remarks. Thank you.
Yeah, many, many thanks. Again, thank you for attending this call, and again I want to highlight the really stronger performance of the group, 8.5 points in the first quarter, again fully being the result of our strong overview from the last year, but also from our strategy, which is again to benefit from the market transformation. The market remains challenging for sure, for the next months, but also for 2025, but even if the market remains challenging, we are confident to be fully in line with our commitment for this year, meaning to outperform the market and to improve all our financial KPIs compared to 2023.
Once again, to use the opportunity to thank the OPmobility team, which is doing a fantastic job. Many thanks and talk to you in the coming months.
Thank you. This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.