Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares is loudly venting his anger towards the French government.
Image: Reuters
Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares, on the other hand, refuses to take political wishes into account when choosing a location. The French government reacted coldly.
Carlos Tavares rarely minces his words. At regular intervals, the head of Stellantis, the third largest car manufacturer in the world in terms of sales, warns of the costs and risks of the politically enforced drive turnaround. “The biggest problem with electrification is affordability for the middle class,” he said recently. In addition, the second major challenge of the powertrain turnaround is the tough competition with car manufacturers from China and the USA. Tavares repeatedly warned that Europeans would have to work hard to remain competitive in the production of electric cars.
The Portuguese is therefore resolutely opposed to taking political wishes into account when choosing a location. But he made few friends with that, especially in Paris. Because for weeks the government there has been appealing to Stellantis, which emerged in early 2021 from the merger of the French PSA group with the Italian-North American FCA group, to relocate production of the all-electric small car Peugeot 208 to France. So far, like the fully electric small car Opel Corsa, it is to be manufactured in Zaragoza, Spain.