Auburn Hills (United States) (AFP) – Jeep and Fiat owner Stellantis said Thursday that it would invest 60 billion euros in a five-year push to restore profitability, reducing its factory capacity in Europe while focusing on “affordability” in the shift to clean-energy vehicles. The strategic blueprint presented at the group’s North American headquarters in Michigan comes after a series of announcements by CEO Antonio Filosa, brought in last year to get the world’s fourth-largest automaker on stronger financial ground.
“We are uniquely positioned to offer delight, functionality and affordability,” Filosa said in a statement, adding that “We have everything we need to deliver our FaSTLAne 2030 ambitions.” Investors appeared unconvinced, with heavy selling of Stellantis shares after the announcement prompting a temporary trading halt on the Paris stock exchange. The company said it would focus in particular on four of its 14 brands — Jeep, Ram, Peugeot, and Fiat — where it would concentrate 70 percent of its planned investments.
“With this refocused approach, Stellantis now has four global brands with the greatest scale and the highest potential for profitability,” the company said. Overall, “this will result, between now and 2030, in more than 60 new vehicle launches and 50 significant refreshes, across all brands and powertrain energies.” However, the group’s European production capacity will be cut by 20 percent, where it is banking on partnerships to revive sales in a market still recovering from the Covid pandemic plunge in new car sales.
EU demands for 90 percent of all cars sold in the bloc to be electric by 2035 have weighed particularly on legacy automakers, while providing an opening to low-cost Chinese rivals. Stellantis said this week it had formed a joint venture with China’s Dongfeng to share EV manufacturing, sales, and engineering operations in Europe. The deal aims to boost Stellantis brands while also letting Dongfeng build locally at a plant in western France, allowing it to avoid hefty EU tariffs on Chinese EV imports.
The Europe capacity cuts will result in a reduction of 800,000 vehicles per year, from a current capacity of around four million units, according to an industry source. This would be achieved by “repurposing plants,” such as in Poissy outside the French capital, and “leveraging partnerships” such as in Madrid and Zaragoza in Spain, as well as Rennes in western France, it said. The joint venture between Stellantis and Dongfeng would see the Chinese firm’s Voyah EVs built at a Stellantis plant in Rennes for the European market, the companies said Wednesday.
Stellantis also said this month that it was considering strengthening its alliance with Leapmotor so the Chinese group can produce its own cars at two of the European auto manufacturer’s Spanish plants. Additionally, Stellantis announced this week that it would start building smaller, low-cost electric cars for the European market as buyers increasingly look to rival Chinese models. The group’s brands also include Alfa Romeo, Opel, Maserati, and Dodge trucks.
© 2024 AFP
