The chip shortage limits the number of vehicles Stellantis can produce
Since new incentives have been introduced for EVs, demand is strong for them in Europe
The company chose to prioritise making EVs instead of gasoline powered vehicles
The electronic chip and semi-conductors shortage that is affecting the automobile industry is forcing automakers to rework their strategy.
Stellantis is one of the companies that had to change its priorities. With the limited supplies of parts it has, the automaker will prioritise making electric vehicles over gasoline and diesel-powered ones.
This decision is motivated in a part to move towards the company’s goal for electrification, which is to have 70% of its sales in Europe and 40% in the United States be electric vehicles by 2030.
The company still has a long way to go, since only 14% of its European sales and 4% of its American sales were EVs in the first half of 2021.
To achieve this goal, Stellantis has commited to invest $30 billion euros on electrification and related softwares to remain competitive against new products from competing makes.
The other reason that encouraged this decision is the increase in popularity of EVs, especially in Europe, where many countries are now offering interesting incentives to buyers.
For example, Germany now gives buyers of fully electric vehicles up to 9,000 euros ($10,438 USD), which make some EVs cheaper than their internal combustion engined competitors.
Even if electric vehicles now take priority, Stellantis assures it is not stopping production of gasoline powered cars, which is important since the company doesn’t currently have a fully electric vehicle on sale in North America, following the disappearance of the Fiat 500e from our market.
