Proactive Investors - Vauxhall parent company Stellantis (LON:0QXR) has warned it might pull out of the UK if plans to limit petrol-fuelled sales aren’t dropped or amended.
Carlos Tavares, the European car giant’s chief executive, told reporters that the rules to curb petrol sales were "a disaster" that would force cars to be sold at a loss.
Britain’s zero-emissions mandate would force prices down to unprofitable levels to meet the targets and avoid fines.
Stellantis would not sell cars at a loss, he warned, adding that the targets for electric sales were unrealistic, with the natural sales level around half of the amount specified in regulations introduced this year.
“It’s very simple. The ZEV mandate mandates carmakers to have a growing EV sales mix every year.
“The problem is the natural demand of the market today in the UK on EVs is half of the mandate.
“If your mandate is imposing on you a level of BEV [battery electric vehicle] sales mix that is double the natural demand of the market, and if the ZEV mandate puts me in a corner by saying, ‘if you don’t meet this, I’m going to kill you with fines’, the consequence is that everybody will start pushing the BEV, which then totally destroys profitability.
“You would not expect Stellantis to support a red ink business.”
Sales of battery electric models were 15% of new registrations in the first three months of 2024, but the ZEV mandate specifies 22% of new sales must be electric.
By 2020, this rises to 80%, with a total p[etrol sales ban from 2035.