In an interview with the daily Les Echos, Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares does not rule out factory closures within his group while Chinese manufacturers are increasing their announcements of opening production sites in Europe.
The essentials of the day: our exclusive selection
Every day, our editorial team reserves the best regional news for you. A selection just for you, to stay in touch with your regions.
France Télévisions uses your email address to send you the newsletter “Today’s essentials: our exclusive selection”. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link at the bottom of this newsletter. Our privacy policy
Chinese car manufacturers are present at the Paris Motor Show.
BYD, Leapmotor, XPeng, Hongqi, Skyworth… These brands may not mean anything to you. The Chinese still represent a tiny share of the automobile market in Europe, but these manufacturers have accelerated significantly on electric cars, with technological proposals and very competitive prices, despite the surcharges announced by the European Commission. Chinese electric vehicles sold in Europe must be subject to an import tax of up to 45% from the end of October.
“They will get around the barriers by investing in factories in Europe. Factories which will be partly financed by state subsidies, in low-cost countries,” the CEO of Stellantis explained to Les Echos.
Some manufacturers like BYD have already announced they are opening sites in Europe to avoid these surcharges. In this context, are Stellantis factories threatened?
Nothing should be excluded… If the Chinese take 10% market share in Europe at the end of their offensive, that means they will produce 1.5 million cars. That’s seven assembly plants. European manufacturers will then have to either close them or transfer them to the Chinese.
Carlos Tavares, patron of StellantisLes Echos
Stellantis has 11 factories in France including car assembly sites in Sochaux, Mulhouse, Rennes, Poissy, Hordain in Hauts-de-France.
The manufacturer Volkswagen has already mentioned the closure of sites for its part in Germany. “For our part, there is no reason to accept a deterioration in our performance if the Chinese progress in Europe, even if we will keep our breakeven point (the number of cars necessary to make fixed costs profitable) below the threshold of 50% activity”, underlined Carlos Tavares, boss of Stellantis, the group with fifteen brands (Fiat, Peugeot, Chrysler, etc.) which will retire in 2026.
Stellantis, which is facing a decline in the global market and sales, has significantly reduced its margin targets for the year 2024. After revising its margin predictions downward, the group fell on the stock market: -14% in just one day, Monday September 31, 2024. The cause: a drop in demand and therefore sales of new automobiles, in the United States, but also in France, which does not only concern Stellantis but other manufacturers such as Renault .
