Stellantis: Filosa – we have excess production capacity, but we will not be closing any plants

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - “We recognise that we have excess production capacity, mainly in Europe, but not only there. We do not want to close plants and, having decided this, the best solution for us is based on sharing capacity.” This was stated by Antonio Filosa, CEO of Stellantis, speaking at the Paris Automotive Summit, as part of the Paris Motor Show. The CEO pointed out that, with this in mind, partnerships have been established with Leapmotor and Dongfeng, both structured as joint ventures: “They will manufacture at the plants we have both selected to share production capacity in line with what is planned in Europe. They will proceed with localisation. Our approach to collaborating with the Chinese is based on ‘Made in Europe’, through localisation in our factories,” said Filosa, explaining that “what we want to do together is sell more cars, especially electric cars; that is the main objective. Distribution is therefore crucial.” The CEO of Stellantis went on to explain that, with the Chinese partners, “we will share production capacity by jointly selecting the brands and products to be manufactured at the plants. This is because we do not want our plants to produce items that compete with other Stellantis brands. And we also want to share knowledge, because we have a wealth of expertise that can be passed on to them, and they have knowledge that we, too, can make use of.”

Ars