Stellantis vehicle shipments fall by a fifth

The crisis at Stellantis, the parent group of Vauxhall, has been laid bare as the multinational automotive group revealed that deliveries have crashed 20 per cent compared with a year ago.
Shipments around the world by Stellantis brands in the three months to the end of September fell 279,000 to 1.14 million compared with the same period in 2023. The collapse in business was most acutely seen in North America where shipments dived 36 per cent, down 171,000 vehicles to 299,000, as it admitted problems managing the energy transition.
The news came as the UK’s largest listed car dealer, Vertu Motors, reported a sharp fall in profits as it counted the cost of thinner margins during a bout of heavy discounting to shift a backlog of electric cars to help carmakers hit zero-emission vehicle sales targets or else face large fines.
Stellantis is the company created out of the 2020 mega-merger between the French Peugeot-Citroën group and the Italian-American concern Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Vauxhall had become part of the group prior to that deal when its former parent General Motors sold it and its similarly lossmaking sister company Opel of Germany to the French for a nominal €1.
Shares in one of the world’s most powerful carmakers, which last year had revenues of €190 billion, have more than halved in the past six months leaving the company valued at about $36 billion.
Stellantis is known to have been in crisis for months as it warned of a build up of unsold vehicles in the United States where its brands include Jeep and Dodge; and in Europe where it has bitterly complained that rules on the transition to electric cars were coming too fast for the company and that it faced a vicious circle of fines for not hitting zero-emission targets while facing the prospect of having to sell vehicles at a loss in an attempt to get toward the targets and reduce the fines.
Speculation has grown in recent weeks that its charismatic leader, Carlos Tavares, could be replaced. The company, which is chaired by John Elkann, a scion of the Agnelli family, the Italian industrial clan and the largest shareholder in Stellantis, has confirmed that it has begun the search for a replacement for Tavares.
Vertu Motors reported that pre-tax profits fell 25 per cent to £23.5 million despite a £70 million increase in revenues in the six months to the end of August to £2.49 billion.
Its founder and chief executive, Robert Forrester, said the trade was awash with zero per cent financing offers and so-called finance deposit allowances, a contribution from either manufacturers or lenders to lower the price of the vehicle.
Referencing the £15,000 per car fine that manufacturers face in the UK if they don’t hit zero-emission vehicle mandate thresholds, Forrester said that was an incentive “for quite a lot of discounting” to shift cars.
Asked whether he believed manufacturers were operating at a loss to try to shift inventory built up during the slowdown in battery electric sales, Forrester said that could not be ruled out.
It is estimated that in the UK sales of electric cars to private motorists — as opposed to fleets and company car schemes which get tax incentives — have fallen 7 per cent this year.