Jeep-maker Stellantis is idling an Illinois plant and laying off 1,350 workers — and blaming EVs https://www.businessinsider.com/jeep-chrysler-stellantis-halting-belvidere-illinois-plant-blaming-electric-vehicles-2022-12 If you have no excuse for bad performance and not being able to sell your products in this market, blame EV's. Some vague statement about electrification to justify their actions, In July 2021, Stellantis said 100% of its sales in Europe and 50% of sales in the US would be of battery electric vehicles by the end of 2030. Well if that is there target, they better get going, unless they want to have 0 vehicles sold (what is 50% of zero ) (Putting it in the general category rather than Fiat Chrysler, as it more than just one company and not product specific)
Relax folks. If you read the article, they're not blaming anyone. They're just acknowledging that the market is shifting and they're in catch-up mode. It would be nice if the company was candid enough to admit, "Hey, we were really slow in catching on to EVs so we're having a rougher ride than most other companies," but corporate PR is pretty much never that honest.
Here is an quote from the article "Our industry has been adversely affected by a multitude of factors like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the global microchip shortage, but the most impactful challenge is the increasing cost related to the electrification of the automotive market," the company said in a statement." They may not be blaming the customer directly, but they are blaming everything else but their management failure to recognize trends and plan, when it would have been cheaper and with less catch up. All they really have in the US market are some plug in hybrids and some promised full EV vehicles in 2024, including one from Fiat.
They're making an absolutely true statement. Converting from making ICE vehicles to making EVs costs money and involves considerable logistics and retooling. Yes, they made it worse by being slow to get started, but you're never going to see that in a corporate press release. What they said is true, if incomplete. Welcome to corporate America -- and, indeed, PR in general.
Stellantis has a lot more problems going on than switching to EVs. Their only good brand right now is Jeep, and how long can that carry the rest of the company.
