Stellantis slows four French plants as battery shortages bite

Stellantis has decided that October will not be a month for pretending industrial plans run on goodwill alone. The carmaker will stop production for between five and fifteen days at four plants in France, after running into shortages and the usual mismatch between demand, supply and corporate ambition.

The sites affected are Sochaux, Rennes, Mulhouse and Poissy. In Sochaux, the historic Peugeot plant in eastern France, production of upmarket SUVs will be suspended from 23 to 30 October. Stellantis said the pause is linked to insufficient availability of certain batteries for the long-range versions of its electric vehicles, and added that demand from business customers is very strong.

Rennes will shut down from 22 to 30 October. Mulhouse will face the longest stoppage, with production halted for 15 days, from 15 to 30 October. The site is due to receive 400 million euros from the one-billion-euro investment package Stellantis announced in France in June. From 2029, the group plans to assemble three new models there, saloons and compact SUVs, in an effort to secure the future of a plant that opened almost 60 years ago.

The CGT union has criticised the resort to short-time working. In a statement, it argued that if fewer cars are being built, the company should keep everyone, including agency workers, reduce line speeds, and use the time to improve working conditions and train employees. That is a familiar industrial argument: if management can slow production, workers ask why the burden should be spread so selectively.

Poissy, in the Paris region, will also stop production, from 19 to 23 October. Stellantis said the pause is meant to adjust output to market demand as part of a fine-tuned stock management strategy. In April, the group said it would end production of its electric vehicle at the site by 2028, and instead focus on producing and recycling parts, as well as preparing and converting vehicles.

For now, the message is plain enough. Even a large investment package does not conjure batteries out of thin air, and even strong demand does not spare a manufacturer from supply constraints. Stellantis is not alone in discovering that the electric future still depends on rather old-fashioned things: parts, timing and the ability to get both in the same place at once.

Written by Martina Kirchner martina.kirchner@alpineweekly.com