Stellantis CEO: ‘Cars are becoming too expensive, factories may close’

“If a European factory builds 200,000 to 300,000 cars a year and car sales drop from 13 million to 10 million, you can calculate how many redundant factories you have in Europe,” said Carlos Tavares in an interview with the Belgian company. The time. In the interview, the Stellantis CEO goes one step further and even calls the situation ‘terrible’. “There is too little energy, no infrastructure and the cars are too expensive.” Especially in southern European countries, where the B-segment is popular and Stellantis products are equally popular, the CEO fears that car mobility for the middle class will become unaffordable.

According to him, the European Parliament is imposing a very expensive technology on the population: one that is still too expensive to make affordable cars for the middle class. He therefore pleads for temporary subsidies for compact, more conventional cars of the more economical type with, for example, mild-hybrid technology, to ensure that the average age of the European vehicle fleet does not increase further. Older cars emit relatively much. While the mid-range is served by those cheaper cars, EV technology can evolve into an affordable alternative, Tavares said. “That saves the much more expensive subsidies for electric cars and ensures that the middle class remains mobile.” Much needed, because according to him there is still a lot of work to be done to bring the price of EVs to the same level as that of cars with combustion engines.

‘People have lost their way’

Tavares does not consider the high price of EVs the only threat to the European car industry. According to him, consumers have ‘lost their way’: “They don’t know what kind of car to buy and they don’t know what the development of the economy will look like in the coming years.” The result is that the consumer is relatively often on the cutting edge. Or is he not afraid that the rushing competition from China will not be able to supply the cautious European consumer with EVs sooner? “We should not want the Chinese industry to force Europe to its knees and then raise prices.” The CEO says he does not know whether the Chinese parties are now selling at a loss, although recently it turned out that this is often the case. He believes that the EU should in any case not make it easier for the Chinese to sell electric cars here, as long as there are also all kinds of restrictions for European manufacturers to sell cars there.

The e-308 from the Stellantis brand Peugeot will roll off the production line in France.