Tavares and the electric breakthrough: Stellantis is ready for 2035 but EU decisions had to be taken earlier

“Stellantis will be ready to meet the 2035 deadline, but the decisions of the European Union had to be taken earlier, perhaps in 2014 or 2015”. Carlo Tavares takes off a pebble, answering questions from the public during the Freedom Mobility Forum. The forum brings together business, climate, civil society, labor and social dialogue experts to discuss facts, challenges and solutions to ensure freedom of movement for all in the context of climate change and a decarbonised world.

The CEO of the automotive group born from the merger between FCA and PSA does not give up on sticking with the EU: «The sector is demonstrating that it can achieve the goal of carbon neutrality, but the approach must not be dogmatic. There can be no one-size-fits-all solution.”

Instead, the Portuguese manager points out, a unique technology is imposed instead of a healthy competition for everyone. “That request is a profound transformation of the sector that will have a great impact and which would also need a transformation of the ecosystem that revolves around the sector”. Tavares highlights the possible problems linked to “forced” electrification, such as that of the lack of raw materials for the production of all the batteries required by the EU revolution. “And as I said in a conversation with a European politician – he grins – not even Parliaments can defeat physics”.

As many observers have been pointlessly repeating for some time, in order to effectively solve the problem of zero-emission mobility, the issue of clean energy production needs to be tackled. «The problem of clean energy – insists Tavares – is the first to face. Without it, the issue of emissions will not be resolved. The auto industry is going through a period of profound transformations. Electrification will not solve all problems. Even within the same country, different solutions may be required depending on the area. And there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Moreover, many of the solutions that have been advanced are not practical, but inspired by a utopia».

It is undeniable that there is a confrontation between the North and the South of the world, but also in Europe itself, on these issues. “In Portugal where I live – he cuts short – the vision and possible solutions are different from Paris”.

That said, even having clean and safe mobility, the great challenge for car manufacturers is that of accessibility, which at the moment does not exist because the raw materials needed to produce batteries for electric cars are scarce and expensive. The scarcity of raw materials, the fragmentation of the world and the different regulations can have an impact on the costs of raw materials, explains the CEO of Stellantis. Tavares gives the example of lithium, which is used to produce batteries. «It is difficult to protect accessibility to these raw materials and to sustainable mobility, also because to replace the global car fleet of 1.3 billion units with clean vehicles, we don’t know if there is all the lithium needed. Also considering where the lithium mines are concentrated, this could create other geopolitical issues.

There is the fact that there are still many ongoing studies on batteries and the raw materials used to produce them could change. “We don’t know what they will be in 10 years. And we still don’t know what materials we will need. The research is just beginning.” Small consolation.