Report: Stellantis Won't Split Out EV Business Just Yet

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

Stellantis’s finance boss had two bits of news this week — the company had done better than expected, revenue-wise, for the first quarter, and it has no plans to split its EV business away from its internal-combustion side.

CFO Richard Palmer said he and Stellantis saw no benefit to so doing, even though rivals like Ford are making moves to separate the EV business.

“We need to manage the company and the assets we have through this transition,” he said. “There are benefits to having the cash flow being generated by the internal combustion business for the investments we need to make.”

He also said the company was open to considering doing things differently, “but we aren’t anticipating any big changes.”

All this among a revenue increase of 12 percent. Selling the right mix of vehicles at the right price helped Stellantis offset any negative impacts from the semi-conductor chip shortage.

“A 12 percent increase in revenue with a 12 percent decrease in volumes indicates a very strong performance on price and mix, which augurs well for our margin performance,” Palmer said.

Palmer believes the chip-shortage situation will improve this year and continue doing so into 2023. “But honestly I cannot give a date for when they are solved,” he added. He also thinks rising raw materials costs could have an impact “up to 50 percent higher.”

[Image: Stellantis]

Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • Conundrum Conundrum on May 07, 2022

    The squares running regular car companies figure the dopes buying stocks will pay over the odds for theirs because gettin'-it-on far-sighted execs with their steely-eyed gaze focused on EVs will make them a vast fortune. Somehow. As inflation bites and just getting to work in the old bus with crazy gas prices and paying for food and rent takes all people's income because no raises, yah shoor, everyone will get a flash new EV. Welcome to fantasy world.

  • SCE to AUX SCE to AUX on May 07, 2022

    "A 12 percent increase in revenue with a 12 percent decrease in volumes indicates a very strong performance on price and mix" Yes, it does. I had to look it up, but Stellantis' profit more than doubled in 2021. Nicely done, Stellantis. Now bring that Airflow II to market.

  • Bill Wade Bill Wade on May 08, 2022

    "I had to look it up, but Stellantis’ profit more than doubled in 2021." Now, if they'd just take some of that money and fix the wretched uConnect 5 in my '22 RAM 3500. :( HUGE step backwards from the uConnect 4 in my '18.

    • SCE to AUX SCE to AUX on May 08, 2022

      Maybe they hired some coders from VW to make it 'better'. /s

  • 3SpeedAutomatic 3SpeedAutomatic on May 09, 2022

    From a speculator view point, would be great to separate ICE from EV, but once the bubble burst (Lucid, Rivian, Fisker, etc)and reality sets in, the stock holders will be screaming bloody murder. Let ICE generate the cash flow, spend it on EV, then separate the two like GM did when it declared bankruptcy and spun off the Motors Liquidation Company with the "bad" assets in 2009. Deja vous all over again!! The play book is already written!!

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