Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares has said the firm will decide the fate of Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port plant in the coming weeks - warning that the UK government’s "brutal" decision to ban the sale of new ICE cars from 2030 could “destroy the business model”.
The PSA Group - which bought Vauxhall-Opel in 2017 - and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles recently completed their merger to form Stellantis, and in his first press conference as the CEO of the company, Tavares pledged that it "will not shut down plants as a result of that merger”.
But Tavares did caution that the future of the Cheshire plant, where the Vauxhall Astra is produced, is under review due to the UK’s 2030 ban on all ICE cars aside from a limited number of hybrids.
“If a government creates a situation that destroys the business model, by saying ‘we’re going to ban the sale of that type of car’, we’re going to stop investing,” said Tavares.
“If we’re told that in 2030 internal combustion engines can't be sold in the UK, which we respect as a decision of the country, then we will not invest in combustion engines any more, and we will look to see if there is a business case to invest in other directions.
“We completely respect those rules and will completely comply with those rules, but if they lead to a case [where] there's no business model, it leads to a consequence that's clear for everybody.
“There's a limit for the headwinds. If one region is putting up so many barriers that there's no room to find something that creates value, then we have to respect that, and then there's an ethical decision from the officers of those companies to make an appropriate decision.
