Stellantis boss wants higher tariffs on Chinese cars in Europe

Carlos Tavares, the boss of car giant Stellantis, wants the European Union to get tougher on Chinese carmakers.

“Simply put, we should ask the European Union to introduce in Europe the same conditions for Chinese manufacturers that we Western manufacturers compete on in China,” Mr. Tavares told reporters at the Paris Motor Show. Automotive news of Europe.

“The European market is wide open to the Chinese and we don’t know if their strategy is to grab market share at a loss and raise the price later,” he said.

Mr Tavares was reported to have referred to talks he had already had with French President Emmanuel Macron about the tariffs. Mr Macron spoke out about the impact of Chinese tariffs and America’s recent push to encourage local production of electric cars on European carmakers.

European-made cars face tariffs of 15 to 25 percent in China, compared with the 10 percent applied to Chinese-made cars imported into Europe.

Great Wall Motor is getting ready for release range of Ora electric cars and Wey luxury cars in Europe, while MG has established itself with a number of PHEV and EV offerings.

BYD, which recently arrived in Australia, is also making a push into Europe. It has launched several new cars as early as 2022 and recently announced a sales deal 100,000 EVs to the German rental giant Sixt.

Mr Tavares, who heads the group, which includes brands from Jeep and Dodge to Fiat and Peugeot, has been outspoken about Europe’s recent car policy.

In January 2022, he warned that plans to phase out internal combustion by 2035 were risky.

“What is clear is that electrification is a technology chosen by politicians, not industry,” he said in a joint interview with Les Echos, Handelsblatt, Corriere della Sera and El Mundo – as reported via Reuters.

“Given the current European energy balance, an electric car needs to travel 70,000 kilometers to offset the carbon footprint of battery production and start catching up with a mild hybrid car that costs half as much as an EV,” he added.

Only this week he protested “the dogmatic decision taken to ban the sale of thermal cars in 2035 has unmanageable social consequences.”

“If you deny the middle class freedom of movement, you have serious social problems,” he argued, pointing to his company’s electrified hybrids as a middle ground that would still have merit in the long run.

“What we can offer our European leaders is a transitional solution,” he said, arguing that these more affordable models still cut emissions by 50 percent.