Stellantis CEO Issues Dire Warning About EV Battery Shortage
Author By Sophia VidaPosted on Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares expects a shortage of EV batteries by 2024-2025, followed by a lack of raw materials for the vehicles by 2027-2028.
The CEO of the world’s fourth-largest carmaker, which was formed by the merger of Fiat Chrysler and France-based Groupe PSA last year, expects shortages of the batteries and raw materials needed to make electric vehicles in the coming years, as the global automotive industry pivots to EVs to meet an expected increase in consumer demand and government regulations.
“The speed at which we are trying to move all together for the right reason, which is fixing the global warming issue, is so high that the supply chain and the production capacities have no time to adjust,” he told media Tuesday. The warning came after the company announced a new $2.5 billion EV battery plant in Indiana.
“All the car companies now, at least the best ones, are now full speed ahead; in full execution mode, going as fast as they can,” Tavares said. “The only thing that really helps to deliver is stability. Stop playing with the rules. Leave the rules as they are and let people work properly.”
The CEO expects a bottleneck in batteries first, as more EV production plants come online. He then expects those facilities to create a shortage of raw materials for the vehicles. Such shortages have been a focus of Wall Street analysts when rating automakers and predicting their ability to sell EVs.
He added, “The point is, when we want to move too fast with a big magnitude and there is not enough feasibility studies, we may be bumping on this kind of stuff. You’ll see that the electrification path, which is a very ambitious one, in a time window that has been set by the administrations is going to bump on the supply side.”
Stellantis is investing $35 billion in EVs and expects to achieve annual sales of 5 million electric vehicles globally by 2030.
Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.
