Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares photographed next to a Jeep Avenger at the Paris Motor Show on October 17, 2022.
Natan Laine | Bloomberg | fake images
stellantis plans to offer a $25,000 all-electric Jeep vehicle in the United States “very soon” to better appeal to consumers amid slower-than-expected adoption of electric vehicles, CEO Carlos Tavares said Wednesday.
Tavares revealed few details about the upcoming vehicle, saying it will be priced at around $25,000 in the United States to emulate Stellantis' pricing of the Citroen e-C3 SUV, a low-cost model starting at €23,300, or about €25,200. dollars, in Europe.
“In the same way we brought the 20,000-euro Citroën e-C3, very soon you will have a 25,000-dollar Jeep,” he said Wednesday during an investor conference in Bernstein. “We are using the same expertise because we are a global company and this is totally seamless across the entire Stellantis engineering world.”
Stellantis currently offers an all-electric version of its Avenger SUV in Europe, starting at about 35,000 euros, or about $37,800, according to its website. The vehicle is not sold in the United States, where the automaker has focused on plug-in hybrid electric Jeep vehicles.
Offering a new electric vehicle for around $25,000 has long been the goal of automakers like Stellantis, tesla and others. The importance of such a vehicle has become more evident as Chinese automakers such as BYD and Nio increase their sales of less expensive electric vehicles outside of China.
“If you ask me what an affordable BEV is, I would say 20,000 euros in Europe and $25,000 in the United States,” Tavares said. “So our job is to bring the safe, clean, affordable BEV to the US, $25,000. We will do it.”
Electric Jeep Wagoneer S.
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Jeep's first all-electric vehicle in the U.S. is expected to be the full-size Wagoneer S SUV, due out later this year. The company is scheduled to officially reveal the vehicle on Thursday in New York. A Jeep Wrangler-inspired off-road vehicle called Recon is also expected this year.
Tavares said Wednesday that the company hopes to achieve cost parity between its all-electric vehicles and traditional internal combustion engine vehicles in the next “three years, at most” to better compete with the growing “Chinese invasion” of electric vehicles. affordable.
“It's a very challenging period, very chaotic, very Darwinian,” Tavares said regarding Chinese competitors, the transition to electric vehicles and possible consolidation of the auto industry. “We are in the storm and this storm is going to last for some years.”
Tavares' comments come amid rising geopolitical tensions over Chinese-made electric vehicles in the United States, Europe and other regions. Many in and around the auto industry fear that less expensive vehicles made in China will flood the markets, undermining domestically produced electric vehicles.
Electric Jeep Recon SUV.
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Tavares also said that tariffs like those the United States is implementing against Chinese electric vehicles may slow their expansion into the United States, but will not stop it completely.
“Yes, time helps, but you can't stop the competition,” Tavares said. “Getting behind a protectionist bubble won't help you be competitive… If your strategy is to downsize and stay inside the bubble, it will buy you time, but it will certainly cut into your future.”
The 100% tariff announced by the Biden administration earlier this month, compared to a current import tax of around 25%, covers electric vehicles imported from China, but could still leave room for Chinese models, at often cheap, lower domestic prices and leave legal loopholes for imports made by Chinese car manufacturers in other countries, such as neighboring Mexico. It also does nothing to address current or future gasoline vehicles imported from the communist country into the US.
