“Stop being naïve and dogmatic.” That’s some statement to Europe’s political leaders from Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares on legislation in favour of EVs, but then he’s never a man to pull his punches.
Tavares’s ire isn’t only at the decision itself, which he believes is pricing the middle classes out of new cars, but also at the perhaps even greater consequence of it that was allowing Chinese companies to come in and undercut the electric cars of native European companies while we’re in this transitional phase.
And given that, as Tavares believes, the Chinese have a 10-year head start on we Europeans in making electric cars, plus their control of the supply chain and raw materials, this makes the issue an existential one for car makers here in face of the sometimes state-backed opposition.
The solution, according to Tavares, is to either impose tariffs on Chinese cars or to offer favourable subsidies on European ones. These would stay in place until 2035, by which point the gap should have been closed and European companies could go off and compete globally on an even footing.
Given that western cars have long since attracted tariffs in China, Tavares sees this arrangement as fair game, especially as he believes that Chinese electric cars will soon start at as little as €25,000 – prices that European companies simply can’t compete with.
He points to Scandinavia as “a weak link” in the European industry “as they’re brand-agnostic” and therefore far more receptive to Chinese cars. “That’s why China goes there,” he says. “They’re aggressive with pricing, and I can’t see them making a profit there.”
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