Dodge Dart 270 on 2040-cars

Auto blog

EV cost burden pushing automakers to their limits, says Stellantis' CEO Tavares

DETROIT — Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said external pressure on automakers to quickly shift to electric vehicles potentially threatens jobs and vehicle quality as producers struggle with EVs' higher costs. Governments and investors want car manufacturers to speed up the transition to electric vehicles, but the costs are "beyond the limits" of what the auto industry can sustain, Tavares said in an interview at the Reuters Next conference released Wednesday. "What has been decided is to impose on the automotive industry electrification that brings 50% additional costs against a conventional vehicle," he said. "There is no way we can transfer 50% of additional costs to the final consumer because most parts of the middle class will not be able to pay." Automakers could charge higher prices and sell fewer cars, or accept lower profit margins, Tavares said. Those paths both lead to cutbacks. Union leaders in Europe and North America have warned tens of thousands of jobs could be lost. Automakers need time for testing and ensuring that new technology will work, Tavares said. Pushing to speed that process up "is just going to be counter productive. It will lead to quality problems. It will lead to all sorts of problems," he said. Tavares said Stellantis is aiming to avoid cuts by boosting productivity at a pace far faster than industry norm. "Over the next five years we have to digest 10% productivity a year ... in an industry which is used to delivering 2 to 3% productivity" improvement, he said. "The future will tell us who is going to be able to digest this, and who will fail," Tavares said. "We are putting the industry on the limits." Electric vehicle costs are expected to fall, and analysts project that battery electric vehicles and combustion vehicles could reach cost parity during the second half of this decade. Like other automakers that earn profits from combustion vehicles, Stellantis is under pressure from both establishment automakers such as GM, Ford, VW and Hyundai, as well as start-ups such as Tesla and Rivian. The latter electric vehicle companies are far smaller in terms of vehicle sales and employment. But investors have given Tesla and Rivian higher market valuations than the owner of the highly profitable Jeep and Ram brands. That investor pressure is compounded by government policies aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The European Union, California and other jurisdictions have set goals to end sales of combustion vehicles by 2035.

Autoblog Podcast #317

Mitsubishi Mirage, Toyota thinks of beefing up US production, Marchionne on Alfa, Dart and minivans, Ford Atlas concept, Honda Gear concept
Episode #317 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Jeff Ross and Michael Harley bookend the other podcast topics with a pair from the Montreal Auto Show, the Mitsubishi Mirage and Honda Gear concept, and in between we talk about Toyota building all its US-market cars stateside, Hyundai building a Nurburgring test facility, Sergio Marchionne's latest words about Alfa Romeo, Dodge Dart powertrains and the future of Chrysler vans. Some chatter about the Ford Atlas concept finishes up the meat of the 'cast and then we wrap with your questions. For those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Keep reading for our Q&A module for you to scroll through and follow along, too. Thanks for listening!
Autoblog Podcast #317:

Dodge Journey to get a performance-focused replacement in 2022?

The Dodge Journey is neither fast nor agile, but it has proved a hard-to-hit target for everyone trying to figure out what the next generation will hold, including Fiat Chrysler. In 2014, the automaker's five-year plan for Dodge included an all-new Journey in 2016, and a hotted-up SRT version of the crossover come 2017. In 2016, "supplier sources" told Automotive News a new Journey on rear-drive Alfa Romeo's Giorgio platform would show for the 2019 model year, and production would be moved from Mexico to Italy, Those prognostications came to naught, the 11-year-old Journey riding on its Mitsubishi-based platform into 2020 with fewer options. Now Mopar Insiders says the next-gen Journey could come in 2022 as an early 2023 model, still on the Giorgio platform and given a performance-focused brief. According to MI, the new Journey — and it's not clear if the name will be retained — comes in strict two-row, five-seater guise. It "will be around the size of the Stelvio," the Alfa Romeo coming in at 184.5 inches. Previous reports have said the Journey will be shorter than the current 192.4-inch model, but longer than the Stelvio. The Dodge Charger is said to donate major styling cues, and there will supposedly be a Scat Pack trim. Under the hood, the entry-level engine will be the same GME 2.0-liter four-cylinder in that makes 276 horsepower and 306 pound-feet of torque in the Stelvio. MI believes a Hemi V8 will make the options list, hence the Scat Pack. Previously, other outlets have figured a turbo V6 like that in the Alfa Quadrifoglio models will stand in as the upgrade, although the model is "being developed with V8s in mind." Any engine choice is expected to be paired with an eight-speed transmission. All of those options far outdo the 2.4-liter four-cylinder with 172 hp and 165 lb-ft, shifting through a four-speed automatic, which is the only powertrain possible for the 2020 Journey. The platform switch and the change to rear-drive will greatly enhance on-road manners and performance, but MI believes an all-wheel-drive option should make the transition. If Journey production moves to Italy from Mexico, Fiat Chrysler will open up capacity in North America for big-profit crossovers and trucks, and get more from its underutilized European operations. Rumor says the Journey would roll down the same lines as the Stelvio in the Cassino Assembly Plant; the crossover is still sold in Europe and other markets as the Fiat Freemont.