Automotive Expotrs November 2022

Stellantis group
may end China
production
Car giant Stellantis may stop building
vehicles in China, chief executive Carlos
Tavares said, citing building tensions with
the West as a deterrent to investment there.
“Our strategy anticipates the possibility of
geopolitical tensions,” Tavares told reporters
at the Paris Motor Show.
“There have already been several times
where we’ve been thrown out of a country
when Western sanctions are imposed...
can we be sure that the stability of
relations between China and the world is
guaranteed?” he added.
Stellantis has already dropped a joint
venture that built Jeep SUVs in China after
failing to take a controlling stake, and is in
talks with local partner Dongfeng about its
Peugeot and Citroen brands. Unlike German
rival Volkswagen, which sold three million
cars in China last year, the historic massmarket
French vehicles have never broken
through there.
“We’re still selling Jeep and Alfa Romeo
vehicles built outside China very profitably”
in the world’s largest car market, Tavares
said, suggesting the same model could work
for Peugeot and Citroen.
“If we take our strategy all the way, we don’t
need any factories in China. In a world of
growing tensions, we don’t need to produce
vulnerabilities,” he added.
Japanese and German producers have
largely stayed away from the Paris Motor
Show. But Asian manufacturers like China’s
Ora and BYD or Vietnam’s VinFast have
turned out in force, hoping to bring lowercost
electric vehicles to European markets.
Stellantis aims for revenues of 20 billion
euros ($19.6 billion) in China by 2030 with
its 14 brands, but Tavares complained of
unequal treatment from Beijing.
“The red carpet is rolled out for Chinese
manufacturers in Europe, and that’s not
how we’re welcomed in China,” he said.
“Import taxes on vehicles coming from
China should be symmetrical with those
applied to Western vehicles in China.”
The Stellantis boss added that “we are in a
world that’s fragmenting, states are trying
to produce bubbles.
“If we think these bubbles will close at some
point, we’ll have to sell in Europe vehicles
that are made in Europe. We will adapt,” he
added.
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