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On the occasion of the Paris Motor Show, the CEO of Stellantis (6th world group resulting from the merger of PSA Peugeot-Citroën and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles), Carlos Tavares, details his strategy for the electric vehicle, accusing the Europe to roll out the “red carpet” for the Chinese. Maintenance.
RFI: The Stellantis group is engaged in an approach to accelerate electric mobility: design, manufacture and recycling of vehicles. What are your current projects?
Carlos Tavares: It’s quite simple. We want to offer our fellow citizens, especially Europeans and French, clean, safe and affordable mobility. We have excellent results since the Peugeot 208 is the best-selling electric car in France. We have about thirty models on sale, reinforced our technological development with the creation of Stellantis, within the regulatory framework set by the European Union. Here in Paris, we have many new products, starting with the Jeep Avenger, the brand’s first vehicle to be 100% electric.
This is an approach that is encouraged by the public authorities. French President Emmanuel Macron announces financial incentives for the most modest households. It’s definitely an asset for you. ?
If these incentives did not exist, middle and lower class households would not be able to buy an electric vehicle. The real problem is its cost, and therefore its price. If we do not facilitate its access to the middle classes, Europe’s electrification strategy would be stillborn. At some point, dogmatism has to meet reality. And in a way, be enhanced by a layer of pragmatism. It is normal that we help the most modest households to have access to the electric car because this is about protecting freedom of movement. And if there is no freedom of movement for the middle classes, there is no modern democracy.
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How do you see the arrival of China as a major player in this market?
There are no surprises. We have explained many times that the dogmatic decisions taken by the European Union rolled out the red carpet for Chinese manufacturers. It was predictable. Here, at the Mondial de l’auto in Paris, apart from Stellantis and its French competitor (Renault), there are only Chinese manufacturers. The Chinese offensive is now a reality. We have been warning about this risk for five or six years. Unfortunately, it materializes. We will have to deal with it. We are ready for the fight. Ready to race. It will be rough. European citizens need to know this and I encourage them to support European manufacturers.
Talk about a fight. China is not a partner, a potential market?
For Stellantis, the least that can be said is that the conditions of competition in Europe make the task much easier for Chinese manufacturers than the Chinese regulatory context does for Western manufacturers. It would therefore be the least of things for there to be reciprocity imposed by the European Union in the conditions of competition on the European market compared to the Chinese market. We note that this is not the case, we deplore it, this is part of the naivety which is added to the dogmatism of the decisions taken by the European Union. And this is a serious problem for European citizens themselves.
We are in a serious energy crisis. How can a car manufacturer act to save energy for its customers and also save energy for society, in its factories?
We have implemented a plan that will enable us to reduce our electricity consumption by 20%. It is an environmental and economic necessity. We have also launched an energy production plan which, in 2025, will allow us to produce 50% of our needs. This is a very significant contribution to reducing the burden on the shoulders of our societies.
Stellantis is a global group. What are its ambitions in Africa?
The Africa and Middle East region is probably the region of the world with the highest growth potential by the youth of the population, while the Western world is aging. Due to the birth rate, mobility needs are enormous. We will make our contribution. We lead multiple initiatives to bring the best of technology to the African continent. We will do so under economic conditions that will allow the middle class to access the use of the automobile, an absolutely prodigious instrument of freedom.
Which countries are concerned in priority?
We have Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, and we recently have Algeria [accord-cadre avec Fiat, NDLR]. And we have every intention of being present in the near future in other countries on the continent. Our strategic objective is very simple: we want 70% of the vehicles we sell in Africa to be manufactured there. There are also second-hand vehicles that respond to the economic power of families. Today it was a very profitable business due to the low production of new cars, a consequence of the semiconductor crisis. We have a unit dedicated to used vehicles, including in the Africa region. We will continue to invest in this sector, also for the circular economy: extending the life of vehicles, recycling, reusing components, what we call standard exchanges on transmissions, on engines, on the bridges. We have very ambitious economic objectives.
As a leader of a large global company, how do you analyze the labor market? Much has been said about the great resignation. In the context of the crisis, employees are asking many questions about the level of remuneration.
I see it with some concern. We have in Europe, and particularly in France, an exceptional quality of life. I am a privileged person who has the possibility of comparing many very different situations in the world. Only Europeans are unaware of how lucky they are to live in such a beautiful region. You have to tell them: if you want to protect your way of life, you will have to work more. If you want to work less, you will degrade your quality of life. If you don’t create wealth, you can’t redistribute it. It is very important to respect Europeans by telling them the truth and avoiding electoral demagoguery. We must work with less bureaucracy, less technocracy, in a more fluid way, using modern communication tools. Have a better productivity at work to produce more, without working more hours. It is a form of intelligence that the European Union has lost.
And the salaries?
It is quite obvious that we must continue to improve remuneration and that is what we have done at Stellantis. What we decided with our social partners exceeded the level of inflation, particularly in France (7%). Last year, we distributed €1.9 billion in performance bonuses to all our staff over a 10-year period. We distribute as much to our employees as to our shareholders, we are in a fairly balanced approach.