The Stellantis group transfers the production of the EP engine to Hungary
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The Stellantis group transfers the production of the EP engine to Hungary
- The Stellantis group has decided to transfer to Hungary the production of its EP petrol engine which is a four-cylinder block of 1400 cm3 and 1600 cm3 equipped today on the Citroën C5 Aircross, DS 3 Crossback, DS 7 Crossback, Peugeot 308, Peugeot 508, Peugeot 3008, Peugeot 5008 and Opel Grandland.
- This engine, whose origins date back to the time of the partnership between PSA and BMW on medium-capacity petrol engines, has seen its volume significantly reduced, as it only represents 218,000 units produced in 2020 out of a total of 2,4 million engines produced last year by PSA, or less than 10% of the total engine production of the carmaker.
- This engine will therefore be transferred in 2021 from the French plant in Douvrin to the Szentgotthard plant in Hungary (ex-Opel engine plant) which only produced 100,000 engines in 2020 (GM original engines). The Douvrin plant produced nearly 800,000 PSA engines last year, including 218,000 EP engines and 565,000 EB2 engines (three-cylinder 1,200 cc petrol).
- The objective of the carmaker is to boost the activity of the Szentgotthard plant, which would have continued to reduce its volume with the progressive end of GM origin engines, and to transform the activity of the Douvrin plant into a plant for producing batteries cells for electric cars from 2023. The Automotive Cells Company (ACC) joint venture that will produce these batteries cells is the result of a 50/50 partnership between Stellantis and the French battery producer Saft, a subsidiary of Total.
Note: This analysis was written before Stellantis announced the production at the Douvrinplant of the third generation of the EB 3-cylinder petrol engine. The corresponding analysis will be proposed soon.
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Jaguar Land Rover to close UK plant at Castle Bromwich
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Jaguar Land Rover to close UK plant at Castle Bromwich
- The production development of electric cars is made inevitably to the detriment of thermal cars, but their price being much higher than their equivalent with thermal engines, we can say that some of the customers will prefer to keep their vehicle longer or acquire a second-hand vehicle (even electric) rather than ordering a new electric car, at least as long as the restrictions on the circulation of thermal vehicles are not generalized in all countries in Europe.
- This phenomenon, which was very quickly materialized at Smart (which eliminated the marketing of its combustion engine cars with a quick sharp decrease of sales) may cause a general drop in car registrations over the next few years, and therefore a decrease in the volume of automobile production, with a marked aging of the vehicle fleet. It may moreover go against the objectives of reducing emissions from automobiles. This is the reason why several carmakers have announced a reduction in their production capacities and others are considering following the same path.
- The Jaguar Land-Rover group (a subsidiary of the Indian group Tata Motors) recently announced that depending on the planned generalization of electric motorization on its models (60% at Land Rover and 100% at Jaguar in 2025), it would reduce soon its production capacities, notably by closing its plant in Castle Bromwich (UK), which currently produces the Jaguar XE, XF and F-Type. These three models should be finished in 2022 or 2023. The JLR group will then have only two plants in Great Britain: Solihull and Halewood, and one in Slovakia at Nitra.
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Stellantis updates its battery cell production targets for the Douvrin plant
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Stellantis updates its battery cell production targets for the Douvrin plant
- Today, the Stellantis group sources battery cells for its 100% electric vehicles from CATL and LG Chem for PSA models and Samsung SDI for FCA. From 2022-2023, it will source its cells from ACC, a joint venture created by ex-PSA and SAFT (a subsidiary of Total). At this time, it is not known whether Stellantis will continue to source from Chinese and Korean producers.
- The production of these ACC battery cells will be carried out in the plants of Douvrin (France) and Kaiserslautern (Germany) which will put an end (or reduce strongly) to the production of thermal engines. For ACC, PSA announced in September 2020 a production capacity target for 2030 of 48 GWh for the two plants combined, or the equivalent of one million BEVs, according to Stellantis. Today, the Stellantis group announces a production capacity target for the equipment of 450,000 to 900,000 BEVs, i.e. a capacity of between 22.5 GWh and 45 GWh and this only for the Douvrin plant (if we take as average basis a BEV equipped with a 50 KWh battery pack).
- What does this production objective, updated in few months, means? Several hypotheses:
1. Stellantis could forecast a market increasing twice as what was initially expected.
2. A higher internal demand for cells production following the merger of PSA and FCA which could provide new opportunities for electric vehicle launches (multiplication of the offer).
3. Finally, the combination of the two factors mentioned before.
- These assumptions are therefore based on both offer and demand, but intentionally ignore other factors, such as communication to the general public or financial markets.
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European production (passenger cars + LUVs) fell by 23.7% in 2020
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European production (passenger cars + LUVs) fell by 23.7% in 2020
- According to Inovev, European production (PC + LUV) fell by 23.7% in 2020, to 13.94 million units, against 18.27 million in 2019. The drop in volume is therefore 4.33 million units from year to year.
- France was particularly affected, with a 40% drop in production, due to the transfer of the Peugeot 2008 in Spain, amplified by the transfer of a latest Renault Clio and Peugeot 208 produced in France to the Slovenia and Slovakia.
- According to Inovev, production in Germany fell by 23% in 2020, in Spain by 20%, in Great Britain by 27.5%, in Italy by 15%, in Czechia by 17%, in Slovakia by 25%, in Poland 22.5%, Romania 25%, Hungary 26%, Slovenia 18.5%, Portugal 20% and Sweden 18%.
- If we take into account only passenger cars, the European production fell by 25% in 2020 compared to 2019, to 11.77 million units against 15.71 million the previous year, which is equivalent to a volume of 3.94 million units.
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Read more... European production (passenger cars + LUVs) fell by 23.7% in 2020
Mitsubishi strategy change in Europe
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Mitsubishi strategy change in Europe
- Mitsubishi made the decision a few months ago to leave the European market in which it has never really succeeded. The strategy was to position the brands of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi group according to their best position on each of the major world markets: Renault in Europe, Russia and South America; Nissan in China and North America; Mitsubishi in South East Asia and Oceania.
- This strategy is already being questioned today. Following negotiations between the three entities of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi group, Mitsubishi will therefore remain present on the European market.
- So what is the group’s strategy for growing the Mitsubishi brand in Europe by 2023? The Franco-Japanese group will create new Mitsubishi models based on Renault-Nissan platforms and produce them in Renault plants, in order to increase the utilization rate of its plants.
- However Mitsubishi's market share in Europe remains very low, around 0.9% in 2018, 2019 and 2020. It will be very difficult to expand the customer base of this brand, which is starting from very low without cannibalizing sales of Renault and Nissan. And we can add, as a recent example, that the Nissan Micra produced at the Renault plant in Flins did not meet the carmaker's objectives at all.
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