Tavares Discusses Issues Facing The Automotive Industry With Italian Newspaper!

In an interview with the Italian newspaper “Corriere della Sera“, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares discussed some of the details the company faces as it continues forward with electrification, especially in Italy.

The move to electricity-powered vehicles has been propelled into action due to politics. The European Parliament voted that the European Union (E.U.) will only have electrified vehicles sold in that market by 2035. 

The decision has raised a lot of concerns and fears about not only the cars but the way they will be produced.

When asked about Stellantis’ Italian plants and layoffs, Tavares exclaimed, “We have the technology, the people, the facilities, and the manufacturing capabilities to make it to 2030 as one team. In Europe we are in second place in electric car sales with less than 3,000 units behind Volkswagen; I can say that we are on his neck. In the United States, we are third in low-emission vehicles. We are competing for the best. By 2030, 70% of our vehicles will be electric, 100% of our sales in Europe. We will not divide the group as Ford did by creating a newco for the electrical sector.”

Tavares went on to say, “In Stellantis there is no old and new to divide, we are a single group that goes in one direction. I understand the concerns, but we are investing €30 billion in electrification and software. And next year with FIAT there will be at least two new models in the B-segment. We are investing €14 billion annually in research, development and plants and Italy is an important piece of our industrial plan.”

The two new FIAT models that Tavares is talking about is the next-generation Fiat Panda and a new Fiat 500-based vehicle, that will be based on the all-new Jeep® (JJ).

Tavares will also asked about the fragility of the production system, mainly due to ongoing semiconductor shortages from China. He explained that, “… we are still at lower levels than in 2019, the situation is stabilizing but normality will not return before 2023. Europe’s dependence on China and Japan for technologies was one of the causes of this slowdown. The production of the chips was directed more towards consumer products, from PCs to tablets rather than cars. But now the situation is normalizing, from ten suppliers who have had problems with this shortage of chips, we are down to two. With the decline in demand for cars, we will increasingly focus on high value-added models.”

Stellantis’ assembly plants have been facing continous supply and semiconductor shortages over the recent year. With the ongoing global inflation issue and vehicle demand dropping, there are still several changes facing Stellantis.

To read more of the interview and to see his thoughts about the former FCA CEO, Sergio Marchionne, you can visit the interview in its entirely on Corriere della Sera.