- Stellantis is prepared to cut back production of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars in the European region, in order for the manufacturer to meet EU ZEV targets as opposed to paying the non-compliance fines.
- This production cut could begin as early as next month, in order for the manufacturer to hit proportional ZEV sales targets that will increase year-on-year, in the run up to 2035.
- Stellantis will go down this route instead of vocally opposing the 2035 EU mandate, which has been seen from other OEMs recently.
Stellantis launches push to hit EV targets
As originally reported by Automotive News Europe, Stellantis’ newly-appointed Chief Operating Officer of Enlarged Europe, Jean-Philippe Imparato, made the comments at last week’s Paris Motor Show – noting that next year, Stellantis will need 24% of cars sold in the European Union to be fully-electric, to meet the 2025 EU target. This proportion will vary from manufacturer-to-manufacturer, as the legislation looks at the average level of CO2 emitted across the entire sale fleet, rather than the proportion of ZEVs sold. Imparato noted that at current EV demand levels, the manufacturer will attempt to achieve this by simply cutting the production of ICE vehicles – helping dodge the costly, associated fines. With this averaged out across the EU, countries already heavily adopting EUs can help contribute significantly to this target.
Stellantis is likely to adopt a similar strategy in other European countries which are outside the EU. The UK, for instance, also has a similar ZEV mandate in place, which Stellantis will want to meet – where it is likely to also employ this strategy of reducing ICE supply. In a different strategy, we already saw Stellantis brand Vauxhall reduce the price of the electric Frontera to the same as the ICE hybrid model.
This commitment stands in contrast to other manufacturers. BMW has launched a push for the European Union to remove the 2035 cut off on the mandatory sale of zero-emission vehicles, with CEO Oliver Zipse believing that the 2035 target is “no longer realistic”. That’s despite BMW performing particularly well when it came to ZEV sales across Europe, this summer. Whether other established manufacturers will follow Stellantis’ strategy, by restricting ICE supply, remains to be seen.