The transition to fully electric driving is putting car manufacturers under immense financial and operational pressure. This is what Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares warns. He fears quality problems and that it will even cost car manufacturers their heads.
It is well known that the transition to a more electric model or even an all-electric range presents car manufacturers with difficult issues. The production of electric cars is still new to many and it is becoming clear that the costs and the number of employees required are different than with conventionally powered cars. Mercedes-Benz foresees a substantial job loss and Volkswagen is also taking this into account. In France, there are also fears of major job losses in the automotive sector due to the transition.
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares emphasizes in conversation with Reuters that in addition to the potential job loss, he is very concerned about the production costs of electric cars. He therefore does not seem particularly happy with the deadlines set for cars with an internal combustion engine: “The car industry is being forced to electrify and that entails 50 percent more costs compared to conventional cars. We can never meet those costs. pass it on to the customer, because the majority of the middle class can no longer afford it.”
The financial blow must therefore largely be absorbed by manufacturers. Stellantis, Tavares said, is looking to increase productivity at an unprecedented rate to keep costs under control. Where according to him normally a 2 to 3 percent improvement per year is reasonable in the car industry, Stellantis is aiming for 10 percent. Although that, if successful, could partly be a solution, the CEO is afraid that the pressure being placed on manufacturers will cause problems in terms of quality. Moreover, he fears that some will go under in the coming period, when the industry will have to ‘operate at the limits of its capabilities’. “The future will show who can handle this and who will fail,” said the CEO of the parent company of Peugeot, Opel, Fiat and Alfa Romeo, among others.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl