The relocation of the production of electric vehicles gave rise to a pass of arms by the media filed on Wednesday. After Carlos Tavares, the head of stellantisdenounced a “brutality” in le figaroBruno Le Maire asked the head of the French manufacturer to “accept this challenge of building small vehicles like the e-208 in France.”
“I hope that the industrialists show a bit of economic patriotism”, added the Minister of Economy, a guest of RMC and BFMTV.
“The red carpet” extended to Chinese manufacturers
In an interview in figaro published on Wednesday, Carlos Tavares especially criticized the urgency with which the Government asks manufacturers to speed up the production of electric vehicles. “The industry must move from a technology that has been optimized, sharpened, for over a century to a technology that is still in its infancy. (…) the technology is not complete. Nothing is optimized”, stresses the head of Stellantis.
“That is the reality about which we must be lucid. But it is a reality that not all decision makers have had the opportunity to see, ”she replies.
Carlos Tavares also underlined the advantage given to Chinese manufacturers for many years.
“Europe has based its regulations on what is precisely the strong point of Chinese manufacturers. That is why they come to Europe with assets and ambition. (…) We have even laid out the red carpet for them,” he laments.
Stellantis will produce its vehicles in France electric top of the range “with high added value”. But it is in the production of smaller vehicles, such as the e-208, that the government is pushing. Except that “the cost structure of the Western world is perfectly inadequate to keep up with that of Chinese manufacturers,” estimates the Stellantis boss, evoking “lower costs between 20% and 25%.”
The mayor cites Renault as an example and challenges Stellantis
Carlos Tavares thus fears the impact of such relocation on production costs and finally about consumers. Especially since the future of electricity rests in part on its appeal to the middle classes. “It is on the sale price that the success of this transition will be based. However, offshoring increases costs. This takes us away from the objective, ”he argued.
“I share the observation that Europe is behind between five and ten in electric vehicles,” replied Bruno Le Maire on RMC and BFMTV.
But the minister wants France to catch up like it did with electric batteries. Therefore, he invites Stellantis to produce “perhaps not in full, but why not in part” of the e-208 in France. “I know that Carlos Tavares is a man of challenges and that he has faced them brilliantly in his industrial career”, applauded Bruno Le Maire, before stinging the Stellantis boss:
“What I see is that Luca de Meo, at Renault, is building a small vehicle, the electric R5, in Douai (…) Then the challenge can be taken up.”
And the Minister of the Economy concluded by recalling that France has great ambitions in the electricity sector: “Thanks to the action of the President of the Republic and the Government, we are going to open four gigafactories for electric batteries on French soil.
Source: BFM TV
