Vauxhall Owner Suffers Sales Plunge Amid EV Slowdown

From The Daily Sceptic

By Will Jones

Vauxhall owner Stellantis’s sales have plunged by more than a quarter amid production issues and an electric vehicle slowdown in Europe. The Telegraph has the story.

Stellantis, which also owns Citroen, Fiat and Peugeot, said revenues slumped from €45.1bn (£37.7bn) to €33bn (£27.6bn) in the third quarter of 2024.

The number of vehicles shipped by the company fell from 1.5 million to 1.3 million over the period.

Bosses have blamed delayed model launches and tough competition in Europe, as well as lower numbers of cars shipped to the U.S. – where the company is seeking to shift a surplus of vehicles that have piled up in sales lots.

In Europe, Stellantis and other car makers have complained about tough new regulations aimed at boosting take-up of EVs, even as inflation has battered households and led to softer demand for the cars.

Sales in Europe dropped from €14.1bn (£11.8bn) to €12.5bn (£10.5bn) in the third quarter, while vehicle shipments fell from 599 million to 496 million.

Stellantis and its European peers face what many analysts see as an existential struggle with Chinese electric car manufacturers for control of the passenger vehicle mass market.

This has prompted Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest car maker, to propose huge workforce cuts and the closure of German factories for the first time, partly in an effort to plough more investment into EV development.

Worth reading in full.