Automotive: Serious and imminent threat to utility factories according to the European boss of Stellantis

"It's very clear: we are just a few months away from a tragedy." On the sidelines of a tour of the commercial vehicle production lines at the Stellantis factory in Hordain (Nord) on Wednesday, July 2, Jean-Philippe Imparato, director of "Wider Europe" for the 14-brand manufacturer, is blunt. If the European Commission doesn't urgently relax its regulations on reducing CO₂ emissions, which require a 20% share of commercial vehicle sales to be electric by the end of 2025, the situation will no longer be manageable. The percentage of electric commercial vehicles purchased is currently 9%. A long way off, then.

Mr. Imparato, recently appointed to his current position by Antonio Filosa, the new CEO of the Stellantis group, estimates the amount of penalties the manufacturer would have to pay for not meeting these targets at €2.6 billion over three years. And, for him, Brussels must postpone the deadline. "If I pay this penalty, I'll crash factories. It's written." Here, in Hordain, where 2,600 employees work in three shifts, the price to pay could go as far as eliminating one of those three shifts. A bloodbath. The urgency, he describes as "absolute."

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