Jean-Philippe Imparato, who heads all of Stellantis in Europe, would rather build fewer cars than succumb to the EU's emissions requirements.
Stellantis plans to reduce the production of cars with internal combustion engines in the coming year to meet the EU's CO2 reduction requirements.
This is done to avoid the fines that will be imposed on car manufacturers that do not meet the targets. Stellantis' European boss, Jean-Philippe Imparato, confirms to Automotive News that that tactic is part of the group's strategy towards 2025.
Several car manufacturers, including BMW and Renault, have called for a postponement of the tougher EU requirements that require 20-25 percent of all new cars sold to be electric cars.
However, Stellantis does not support such forced changes. Stellantis global director Carlos Tavares stressed at the Paris Motor Show on October 15 that Stellantis plans to meet the set targets without seeking any kind of exemption.
In order to comply with the new rules, Stellantis will also increase the production of electric cars in 2024. According to Jean-Philippe Imparato, this may mean that the company will have to cut back on the production of combustion engine cars as early as November 1, if the demand for electric cars does not increase significantly.
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– If the demand for electric cars remains at the current level, our only option to meet the targets will be to reduce the production of cars with internal combustion engines, says Imparato.
The new rules come into force on 1 January 2024 and set an overall target for cars' CO2 emissions of 95 grams per kilometres, which is a tightening from the current 106.6 grams.
Car manufacturers that do not meet their individual emissions targets will receive fines of 95 euros per vehicle. grams of CO2 they exceed the target by, per car. This particularly puts pressure on manufacturers who do not have enough electric cars in their range.
Stellantis is one of the world's largest car manufacturers and owns brands such as Peugeot, Citroën, Fiat, Opel/Vauxhall and Jeep.
The group has also entered into an agreement with the Chinese car manufacturer Leapmotor for the production of electric cars in Italy. In this way, the Chinese avoid the punitive tariff that the EU recently imposed on all electric cars that are built in China.
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