PARIS/MILAN (Reuters) – Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, warned on Wednesday against the temptation at government level to use the fight against climate change as a means of gaining commercial competitiveness.
“Whichever part of the world, we should not use (climate change) policies to rebuild the competitiveness of the country regulating this type of policy,” he said during the first “Freedom Forum movement” organized digitally at the initiative of Stellantis.
“Climate change policies should not be a weapon in a global trade approach,” added the managing director of the automaker born from the merger between PSA and FCA.
Carlos Tavares added that the European discussion on maintaining synthetic fuel engines beyond the thermal ban in 2035 did not change anything in Stellantis’ electrification trajectory.
Industry for a long time globalized, the automobile is currently confronted with a rise of protectionism which complicates its strategic decisions.
The United States last year announced $369 billion in grants under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which could spur clean energy investment decisions on American soil, while Beijing maintains tight control over the Chinese economy and supports local production of electric vehicles.
The European Union retaliated last month with an industrial “Green Deal” plan to protect European-based companies and prevent investment flight.
(Gilles Guillaume in Paris and Giulio Piovaccari in Milan, edited by Bertrand Boucey and Blandine Hénault)
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