Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said on Monday at the Paris Motor Show that he is not ruling out future job cuts. “I am not ruling out anything,” Tavares told French radio station RTL when asked whether he intended to cut jobs.
Tavares was in the French capital for the Paris Motor Show, which runs until October 20. “The financial health of Stellantis is not only tied to the suppression of jobs but relies on many things – imagination, intelligence, innovation – which is what we are doing”, said Tavares.
No priority, but possible
He stressed that job cuts are “not at the centre of our strategic deliberations”. Later on Monday, Tavares told reporters he was “totally open to continuing a dialogue with the government” after lawmakers on Friday questioned him over his strategy to prevent the decline of the automotive sector in Italy.
Stellantis, the world’s fourth-largest automaker, announced that it expects to burn between 5 and 10 billion euros in cash this year, dropping previous “positive” expectations. Asked by reporters whether he could assure there would be no job cuts within the group after his RTL interview, Tavares said, “Others have created chaos, and you are asking me to solve the situation and guarantee jobs.”
According to Tavares, the critical problem is the new EU CO2 targets, which he says are imposing 40% higher costs on the car-making industry at a time when customers are unwilling to purchase expensive electric vehicles.
On Sunday, in an interview published by French newspaper Les Echos, Tavares also declined to rule out Stellantis plant closures as Chinese competitors announce the opening of new production sites in Europe.
The Chinese threat
The CEO of Stellantis, who will retire at the end of his contract in 2026, warned that “closing the border to Chinese products is a trap: they will circumvent barriers by investing in plants in Europe, plants that State subsidies, in low-cost countries will partly fund”.
Chinese carmakers, including BYD, have already announced opening European production sites to avoid tariffs. Speaking about Chinese competition and staying profitable in the interview with the French financial daily, Tavares said that “if the Chinese take 10% of the market share in Europe at the end of their offensive, this means they will contribute 1.5 million cars”, or the equivalent of “seven assembly plants”.
The 66-year-old Portuguese CEO noted that “European constructors will then have to both close and transfer them to the Chinese.” He also recalled that Volkswagen announced it was considering closing factories in Germany for the first time.
The move highlighted the mounting price pressure Europe’s top carmaker faced from Asian rivals. Tavares, whose departure has been confirmed by Stellantis for the end of January 2026, assured, however, that “there is no reason to accept that our performances will worsen if the Chinese make progress in Europe”.
Italian anger
Meanwhile, in a statement issued after the CEO’s interview Monday to the French radio station, the Italian League party led by Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini severely criticized the “umpteenth, disconcerting statements made by Tavares on possible layoffs.”
The note said such statements “make establishing the truth on the public billions earned by Stellantis even more urgent and current. Tons of money have produced profits for managers, investments abroad, and painful cuts in Italy. It is a scandal that we will bring out in all its magnitude,” concluded the note.
Maurizio Lupi, president of the small centrist Noi Moderati party in the government coalition, also said the timing of the CEO’s statement was ‘suspicious’: “On Friday came the request for further incentives, today the ‘threat’ of layoffs, without any serious plan of development and investments in Italy.”
‘Mismanagement’
Tavares had already come under fire over the weekend after calling for more incentives for the sector as cabinet members have called for clarity over production plans in Italy. On Saturday, Salvini said Tavares should be ashamed for saying car production in Italy was too expensive unless the government delivered fresh incentives for the sector.
“He is no longer in a position to ask for anything, given the way they have mismanaged a historic Italian company,” he said of Stellantis, formed by the merger of Fiat-Chrysler with Peugeot.
Meanwhile, Italy’s biggest trade union, CGIL, called for the government to take action to end uncertainty about the future of Stellantis’s plants in Italy. CGIL Secretary General Maurizio Landini called the situation “dramatic.”
Stellantis is facing a national strike of metalworkers in the automotive sector called by Italy’s main unions for October 18, with a major demonstration scheduled in Rome. On Monday, the leaders of most of Italy’s opposition parties released a joint statement calling on Stellantis Chairman John Elkann to report to parliament on the outlook for the carmaker’s Italian plants.
Social leasing
Carlos Tavares also proposed a ‘social leasing’ scheme for second-hand cars at the Paris Motor Show. This social leasing is already very popular in France for new cars. Since the beginning of the year, some 50,000 consumers have registered for this system, leasing a small EV for a monthly fee of approximately €100.
Stellantis has been very involved in this scheme, and Tavares proposes to open it to second-hand cars, companies, and light commercial vehicles, a sector in which Stellantis is number one in Europe.
The French Minister of Transport, François Durovray, confirmed on Friday that this social leasing system will be renewed in 2025. What will be in it has still to be discussed. The total budget for incentivizing electric purchases has nevertheless been reduced from €1.5 billion to €1 billion, probably meaning that the premium of €4,000 to buy a new electric car will be revised or abolished.
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