The Stellantis plant in Eisenach will produce electric vehicles from 2024
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The Stellantis plant in Eisenach will produce electric vehicles from 2024
- The Stellantis site in Eisenach, located in eastern Germany, which has seen its production volume plummet over the past ten years, from 170,000 units in 2013 to 50,000 in 2022, will produce the new generation of the Opel Grandland (C-Segment SUV based on the same platform shared with the Peugeot 3008/Citroën C5-Aircross/DS 7 Crossback) which will be available in thermal, plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and battery electric (BEV) versions.
- The future Opel Grandland will be launched in the second half of 2024 and will use the STLA Medium platform of the new generation of the Peugeot 3008 which will be presented at the end of 2023 for a launch onto the market in early 2024. This new platform, which replaces PSA's EMP2 platform, allows to produce on the same basis ICE, hybrid and electric vehicles.
- Remember that the Opel brand (like its British cousin Vauxhall) has announced that it wants to completely switch to battery electric vehicles production from 2028. What is the share of electrified vehicles at Opel in 2022? Last year, the Corsa-e, Astra-e, Combo-e, Vivaro-e and Movano-e models accounted for a 17% share of Opel's total sales, including 14% BEV and 3% PHEV.
- This proportion is close to what we have at BMW (18% of electrified vehicles including 11% of BEV and 7% of PHEV) and is better than Mercedes (13% of electrified vehicles including 6% of BEV and 7% of PHEV). It is above all better than Volkswagen, which is the direct competitor of Opel (10% of electrified vehicles including 7% of BEV and 3% of PHEV). Finally, it is comparable to Ford Europe (17% of electrified vehicles including 4% of BEV and 13% of PHEV), except that the share of BEV and PHEV are reversed compared to those of Opel.
Stellantis will produce cars in Algeria and South Africa
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Stellantis will produce cars in Algeria and South Africa
- The Stellantis group achieves nearly 45% of its global sales in Europe and 28% in the United States, which means that the carmaker focuses mainly on these two regions which represent three quarters of its sales.
- The distribution of its models in China ended in failure, the carmaker now being ready – after some hesitation – to withdraw from the first world market. The distribution of its models in India, a market with a potential, has not shown any real performance so far either. On the other hand, the carmaker has stopped selling its models in Russia, following the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Finally, attempts to set up in Southeast Asia did not end in great success.
- The global situation of Stellantis push the group to invest in African markets.
- First initiative: an agreement was signed between Stellantis and the South African government to produce cars in South Africa from 2025. It is to remind that South Africa is the leading automotive market on the African continent (500,000 units in 2022 ). It is still unknown today which brands will be produced there and even less which models.
- Second initiative: an agreement was signed between Stellantis and the Algerian government to produce cars in Algeria from 2024. We know that these will be Fiat brand models: 500, 500X, Doblo, future Tipo. The production capacity of the factory located near Oran should reach 90,000 vehicles per year in 2026. It should be remembered that the Algerian market did not exceed 17,500 units in 2022, against 100,000 units in 2021, 150,000 in 2019 and 250,000 in 2015.
Vehicle production in UK fell to 900,000 units in 2022
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Vehicle production in UK fell to 900,000 units in 2022
- The volume of PC+UV production made in UK suffered a real collapse after the Brexit vote (leaving the European Union) in 2016. The volume of production fell from 1.8 million units in 2016 to 1 4 million in 2019 then to 1 million in 2020 and finally 900,000 in 2022. Since 2016, British car production has therefore been halved.
- All carmakers have been impacted: Nissan, whose production volume reached 500,000 units per year between 2012 and 2016, saw its production drop by 50% to reach 250,000 units in 2022. However, Nissan remains the leading carmaker in UK, of which it represents a quarter of the total volume.
- For the Indian group Tata Motors (Jaguar and Land Rover brands), the drop was the most brutal. From 500,000 vehicles per year in 2015 and 2016, this carmaker fell to 400,000 units in 2019, 250,000 units in 2020 and 200,000 in 2021. This fall was accelerated by the collapse of Jaguar sales and by the relocation of some Land Rover models to Slovakia.
- Toyota saw its production volume halved due to the end of the Avensis in 2018. Honda ceased operations in 2021 when its average production volume in recent years reached 150,000 vehicles per year.
- Opel also saw its production drop by half due to the sales decline the Astra and then the end of its production which was relocated to Germany. Finally, only Mini (BMW group) saw its production volume remain stable at around 200,000 vehicles per year, due to constant success and the carmaker's refusal to relocate its production.
Korean carmakers leave also Russia
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Korean carmakers leave also Russia
- Following the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, the USA and the EU decided to apply new economic sanctions against Russia. One of the aspects of these sanctions concerns the automotive industry. Thus, European and Japanese carmakers decided to leave Russia. American carmakers had already left the country a few years ago.
- BMW, Mercedes, Toyota and Nissan therefore ceased production in Russia in March 2022, a month after the beginning of the conflict. Renault, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Stellantis and Volkswagen the following month. At that time, only Russian carmakers (Avtovaz, Moskvitch, UAZ, GAZ), Chinese carmakers and Korean carmakers remained.
- But Korean carmakers stopped production in Russia in October 2022. This decision was undoubtedly difficult to make because the locally produced Hyundai and Kia models were among the best-selling cars in Russia. The Kia Rio sedan was fourth in the Russian market in 2022, the Hyundai Solaris was fifth, and the Hyundai Creta was seventh.
- The Hyundai-Kia group had become one of the largest producers in Russia between 2015 and 2020. The departure of the Koreans from Russia now leaves the market open to Chinese carmakers who will be able to establish themselves massively in Russia, alongside Russian carmakers such as Avtovaz, Moskvitch, UAZ and GAZ. It is to be noted that Moskvitch currently produces Chinese cars under license. This is what could happen with Avtovaz in a few years, because the Russian carmaker regularly lacks financial support to renew its range of vehicles. Renault provided for these needs in 2011, when it took control of Avtovaz, but today everything has to be redone.
Car production in Italy fell to 700,000 units in 2022
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Car production in Italy fell to 700,000 units in 2022
- The volume of PC+UV production made in Italy fell to 700,000 units in 2022, compared to 800,000 in 2020 and 2021, and 1 million in 2018. But the production volume in Italy still exceeded 1.3 million in 2007.
- This once prosperous producing country, when Fiat was the second European carmaker behind Volkswagen and when Fiat had not yet decided to relocate a large part of its production, particularly in Poland and Serbia, suffered the brunt of the various decisions that have sacrificed many of its plants, such as Mirafiori which was one of the largest European plants in the 1960s or Termini which was closed in 2011. The decisions to let the Fiat Punto (B-segment sedan) end without being replaced, to relocate Fiat C-segment sedans to Turkey, to let the Lancia brand declining or to fail to restart the Alfa-Roméo brand have a great impact on the entire Italian automotive industry.
- While Italian production had fallen to its lowest point in 2013 and 2014 (650,000 cars produced per year), the Fiat group decided to relocate production of the Fiat Panda to Italy and by establishing production of the Jeep Renegade there. These decisions allowed Italian production to rise to 1,000,000 units in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. The fall in the Italian market in 2020, 2021 and 2022 caused Italian production to drop again (-500,000 cars per year ) over the past three years.
- The Stellantis group, which today represents 84% of Italian production, will have to ensure that it establishes a significant production of electric cars in Italy so that this country remains a significant automobile producer.
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