As chip shortage eases, Stellantis CEO sees rising pressure on car prices

Shortages of semiconductors and other components are easing, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said, helping the industry increase production and bulk up inventories.

The constraints on production are being lifted just as automakers contemplate the prospect of price wars and a more competitive industry.

Consumers may be less willing to spend on big-ticket items such as cars because of worries about inflation, rising interest rates and higher energy prices.

"The situation continues to improve,” he told journalists on Wednesday about the semiconductor supply. "Over the last six months we have been able to hold a very significant level of production.”

Tavares said there has already been a noticeable easing of demand, but that Stellantis can avoid cutting prices in the short term because it still has months’ worth of orders to deliver. He said Stellantis had 1.3 million cars in its global inventory, including 1 million in dealer stock.

"We have clear signs that there is a rebalancing of supply and demand so it’s normal that pricing power will be under pressure for the next few quarters,” he said. "The good news is that supply is back so we will have a greater overall potential for profitable volume” as orders are filled and if demand level remains the same.

Price cuts on electric cars from Tesla have set off speculation that many other automakers would follow suit. Ford has done so in the U.S., and Mercedes-Benz has cut prices in China. Tavares described those cuts as "tactical” to capture EV subsidies and boost EV sales.

A key to the outlook beyond the first half of the year is orders in the second quarter, he said.

"For the second half of the year, it’s all about spring in terms of order intake and trends,” he said, adding that it was "too soon” to make solid forecasts because of a "volatile” market.

Tavares said the key to preserving Stellantis’ double-digit operating margins if demand drops is reducing fixed costs faster than the ability to maintain or raise current prices – what automakers call "pricing power.”

"If there was to be some erossion of pricing power, the name of the game is to reduce total production costs faster,” he said. "We are a company that is known to be quite strong in cost management.” That could also be helped if inflation continues to cool, reducing raw materials costs.

The automaker recorded margins of more than 16 percent in North America, and its average transaction price in the U.S. was $53,000 per unit in 2022, which it said was the highest in the segments in which it competes.

Even though the chip shortage may have eased, Stellantis is still facing sporadic production disruptions for key models. Component shortages could lead to losses of about 24,000 units in 2023 for the compact Peugeot 308 at Mulhouse, France, and 22,000 units for the Peugeot 2008 small SUV at Vigo, Spain, according to a report last Friday from AutoForecastSolutions, which has been tracking the semiconductor shortages.

Tavares said there were still a few Tier 1 suppliers who were having supply issues, but a smaller number than in 2021. The chip supply situation "is now a very good way of identifying the companies that are good enough at managing their own supply chains,” he said.