They share the same impatience. The same concern. The same ambition. John Elkann and Luca de Meo, heads of the two rival groups Stellantis and Renault, have decided to sound the alarm together. The European car market has been falling for five years now,” explains Stellantis chief John Elkann. “It’s the only one of the world’s major markets that hasn’t returned to its pre-Covid level.”
It’s almost a collapse: 15 million vehicles were sold in Europe (in the 27 member states, the UK and Switzerland) last year, compared with 18 million in 2019. “And it’s still going on,” notes Elkann, who warns: ”At the current rate, the market could be more than halved in the space of a decade.”
“We need to start again from the demand side,” asserts Renault CEO Luca de Meo. This means offering affordable cars.
“Among European automakers,” explains de Meo, ”there are two schools of thought. That of Stellantis and the Renault group, which together account for 30% of the market, and which want to produce and sell…
