EV push poses environmental, social risks: Stellantis CEO

Carlos Tavares thinks the move to battery-powered vehicles is motivated by politics and not industry

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The European Commission’s strategy to phase out combustion engines in favor of electric vehicles is a political choice that carries environmental and social risks, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said in an interview with European newspapers.

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Since merging Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot to create the world’s No. 4 carmaker by production, Tavares has mapped out a 30-billion-euro (US$34-billion) electrification plan that helped Stellantis shares surge more than 60 per cent in their first year.

“What is clear is that electrification is a technology chosen by politicians, not by industry,” he said in a joint interview with France’s Les Echos, Handelsblatt, Corriere della Sera and El Mundo . He added there were cheaper and faster ways of reducing carbon emissions.

“Given the current European energy mix, an electric car needs to drive 70,000 kilometers to compensate for the carbon footprint of manufacturing the battery and to start catching up with a light hybrid vehicle, which costs half as much as an EV (electric vehicle),” he said.

He also said a ban on thermal vehicles by 2035 in Europe means carmakers need to start transforming their plants and supply chains quickly. “The brutality of this change creates social risk,” he said.