Mangualde, Portugal, July 2, 2024 (Lusa) - Stellantis' Mangualde plant has started production of electric vehicles following an investment of around €30 million to adapt the factory, the automotive group's CEO Carlos Tavares said on Tuesday.
The Portuguese plant will ensure the production of eight 100% electric models in the passenger and light commercial versions of the Citroën ë-Berlingo and ë-Berlingo Van, Peugeot E-Partner and E-Rifter, Fiat e-Doblò and Opel Combo-e models for the domestic and export markets.
Last year, Carlos Tavares announced the production of battery electric vehicles for the beginning of 2025, but this goal has been brought forward.
Speaking to journalists at the end of Tuesday's ceremony marking the start of production of these vehicles, Carlos Tavares said that he had no forecast of how many would leave the factory each year because "it totally depends on the order book, the customers decide".
"Today we celebrated one of them," he said, referring to the order for 719 cars for the Portuguese health service (SNS).
According to Carlos Tavares, as seen in Germany and Italy, the order book "depends on the subsidies that European governments want to give to the middle class to buy electric vehicles".
"The order book for a European business like ours is usually around three months of orders. I have a very clear idea of the cars I will produce in the next three months, and I can say that, at the European level, our sales mix for electric vehicles is in the region of 12% to 14% of total sales. At the level of this plant, it depends on the orders we receive," he said.
The CEO of Stellantis explained that "the only thing to do is to create an industrial process that is flexible and allows us to absorb variations", which is what happened in Mangualde.
"When we have an order for 719 vehicles for the health service, we try to make all 719 vehicles at once, one after the other. For a certain period of time, we'll only make electric vehicles," he said.
According to Carlos Tavares, Mangualde has "a factory that is very flexible to absorb the variations in orders that are the result of European policies on subsidising the purchase of electric vehicles."
"In Europe, as soon as subsidies for electric vehicles are cut, European consumers stop ordering electric vehicles," he said.
In Mangualde, Stellantis is equipped "to make from zero to 100% of electric vehicles", said Carlos Tavares, adding that this year, the factory should "set another new production record, in the region of 87,000 vehicles", up from 82,000 last year.
Carlos Tavares explained to journalists that the Mangualde plant "has shown excellent performance in terms of quality and cost" and has "a very flexible assembly line".
"We can mount a thermal chassis under the car or an electric one. The flexibility is almost total in the assembly line," he explained.
Stellantis in Mangualde led one of the mobilising agendas for business innovation with the "GreenAuto" project, which brings together a consortium of 37 partner entities and represents a joint investment of 119 million euros.
The Mangualde plant has undergone significant transformations in its industrial area, in particular, creating a new battery assembly line, which has led to the modernisation of an area of more than 800 square metres. This new area, implemented in the assembly sector, has created 63 new jobs.
"We made this choice because we believe that the Mangualde plant has great potential in terms of quality, good cost competitiveness, which at the moment is even better than the Vigo plant. So there's no reason not to give the Mangualde plant the manufacturing of vehicles that represent the future," he emphasised.
AMF/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
