Stellantis i54 Winter 24

EXECUTIVE INSIGHT LEADING THE PROFESSIONAL CHARGE

WINTER 2024

ISSUE 54

Movingthe

WORLD Stellantis is set to increase access to mobility across the continents

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Moving the

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Stellantis, one of the world’s leading car manufacturers, is set to increase access to mobility across the continents. Jon Bradley spoke to Samir Cherfan, Chief Operating Officer, Stellantis Middle East and Africa, about investment and expected growth in this fastest growing region for the Group.

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tellantis, established in 2021 as a merger of the Italian–American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the French PSA Group, is a constellation of 14 iconic automotive brands and two mobility arms that aims to develop, engineer, manufacture, and scale up the best breakthroughs in all facets of sustainable mobility from autonomous, connected, electrified, shared and pre-owned vehicles to micro-mobility, commercial vehicles, and even electric aircraft. The company has been growing in line with its mission: “Powered by diversity we lead the way the world moves.”

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Where innovation meets experience SKF was founded in 1907. We are represented in around 130 countries, with more than 40 000 employees and 17 000 distributor locations worldwide.

Our products are found everywhere in society. In fact, wherever there is movement, SKF’s solutions may be used. We are an important part of the everyday lives of people and companies around the world.

Our extensive background in electric industrial motors provides us with a solid foundation, enabling us to support the electric vehicle (EV) industry’s move towards sustainability and efficiency.

Our offer includes specialized bearings, designed to meet the unique demands of EVs. These bearings reflect our experience in electric motor technology, focusing on efficiency and vehicle range without compromising durability.

We also offer tailored solutions for EV powertrains, in which we combine precision engineering and innovative design to develop new generations of vehicles.

As the automotive industry transitions to electric, SKF is your partner on the journey towards the future of mobility.

Accelerate to zero Our targets to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the value chain are validated and approved by SBTi. And our bearing technologies for electric vehicles enable lower emissions throughout their full life cycle – from low carbon manufacturing to friction reduction in the end application.

Let’s work together to accelerate the race to zero.

Read more at skf.com/sustainability ® SKF is a registered trademark of AB SKF (publ). | © SKF Group 2023

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With a community of more than 160 nationalities, industrial operations in more than 30 countries and customers in more than 130 markets, the Group is one of the most diverse companies in the world, and with its ambitious decarbonisation strategy to be a carbon net-zero mobility tech company by 2038, Stellantis is leading the industry’s transition toward a carbon net-zero future.

“In 2023, Stellantis became the most efficient group in the automotive industry,” says Cherfan, pointing out that although the Group as such was established only a few years ago, the history of its individual brands goes a long way back in history - with Peugeot, Opel, Fiat, Vauxhall and Lancia introduced between 1896 and 1906, then Alfa Romeo coming in 1910, followed by Maserati, Citroen, Chrysler Jeep and others.

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“Similarly, in regional terms, although Stellantis Middle East Africa as an organisation unit is young, established within the Group only in 2015, the brands enjoy a solid legacy in the region that started in the 1950s, with production in Morocco, Nigeria and Turkey for Fiat, Opel and Citroen. So the brand presence in the Middle East and Africa is well established – a solid foundation to be built on further.”

Aiming for market leadership He further noted that in Q3 2023 the Group recorded net revenues

of €45.1 billion, up 7% compared to Q3 2022, a result to which MEA contributed strongly.

“The region is very dynamic and we have ambitious plans in the MEA: we want to move from 25% to over 90% regional production autonomy, and aim to become the regional market leader with one million vehicles sold by 2030, of which 35% will be electric.”

This is projected to be achieved by consolidating the Stellantis position in the Mediterranean Crown and the French Overseas Territories, achieving above 30%

market share, and by ramping up in Middle East, South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa with a market share above 12%.

To this end, the Group has implemented major investment in the region.

In December 2023, Stellantis’s new manufacturing plant in Tafraoui – Algeria started production, a strategic move designed to bolster the development of the country’s automotive sector through localised manufacturing of Fiat models. The Tafraoui plant, with initial annual assembly capacity

of 90,000 cars, featuring a range of four models, will have a major social impact, creating thousands of new direct and well as indirect jobs within the supplier ecosystem.

“We are also expanding in Morocco.

The investment of over €300 million in our Kenitra manufacturing facility will double local production capacity, reaching 400,000 vehicles by the end of 2024 along with 72,000 electric mobility objects with three models: Citroen AMI, Opel Rocks – e and Fiat Topolino.

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The two plants in Morocco and Türkiye are among the top five worldwide plants in terms of efficiency

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The “smart car” platform is intended to further support Stellantis’s product range and will represent 40% of the region’s mobility offerings by 2030. Stellantis has now achieved a local integration rate of 69% aimed at developing activities by and for the region to become a full-fledged organisation leveraging local talent.

Under a new strategic agreement, Stellantis is also strengthening its positions in Türkiye, one of its strongest

countries in the region, merging all of its commercial activities under one single entity – their existing Tofaş joint venture between Stellantis and Koç Holding – allowing for synergies in commercial activities and paving the way to offering broader and more efficient products and services to Turkish customers. Under the agreement, all Stellantis brands available for distribution in Türkiye will be distributed by Tofaş. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals.

“The two plants in Morocco and Türkiye are among the top five worldwide plants in terms of efficiency, and further performance improvement is expected as a result of these synergies,” says Cherfan, adding that major investment is also planned in South Africa, where Stellantis is set to build a new plant, starting in 2025 with an ultimate capacity of 100,000 units.

“All of our initiatives to reach one million units by 2030 have already been set in motion.”

Leading the way towards net zero Speaking about technology, Cherfan acknowledged that Stellantis is building development to serve a wide variety of vehicle segments and ranges with a combination of four state-of-theart BEV-centric vehicle platforms – STLA Small, Medium, Large and Frame – three electric drive modules (EDMs) to provide modularity and performance, and 2 battery cell chemistries to ensure affordability for all.

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The Group has also created a Stellantis Venture Fund with 300 million euros focusing on advanced propulsion, electronics, advanced material connectivity, manufacturing and supply chains and working with thousands of start-ups across the world in order to ensure that Stellantis will always be at the forefront of these fields.

Stellantis has a strong ESG policy aimed at supporting each of its regions and any investment Stellantis is making is strictly in line with its 2030 sustainability targets. “Sustainability is rooted in our everyday operations and within any of our R&D initiatives. At the Group level, the electrification strategy covers about 75 electric projects worth €20 billion in investment by 2025, and we are also benefiting from this in the MEA region.”

He explains that specifically in MEA, the company is looking at micro electromobility which is a tool for emerging markets mobility. The new car market share in MEA is small – in a region of 1.2 billion people the official new car market records only some 80,000 units p.a. “Preowned cars are an important segment, and so are two-wheelers. But between the two wheelers and the used cars, there is something else – we evaluate around 3 million units of three wheelers. And we estimate that this segment would be around 80% electric.”

Also internally, Stellantis is on track with its climate change targets. The new production in Morocco aims at a 100% zero-carbon footprint and the Group has projected globally to reach full autonomy in terms of green energy for its plants. In addition to wind and solar, hydrogen fuel cells show great promise as the next level of zero-emission propulsion technology, particularly for Stellantis’s light commercial vehicle customers, says Cherfan.

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Sustainability is rooted in our everyday operations.

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Cherfan points out that the dynamic in the “Third Engine” (i.e.

Stellantis markets outside Europe and North America), of which MEA is a part, will remain strong.

“We are aiming at 90% autonomy in 17-18 models, which would be in the core of the market need. I believe that the access to mobility is an emerging need, which is what we will strive to address, for example with the three wheelers in Africa. In the MEA region Stellantis will be powered by its diversity to be a mobility leader.”

The human factor Cherfan affirms that the human factor is one of the key pillars of Stellantis’s development. He himself was appointed Chief Operating Officer for Middle East & Africa and a member of Stellantis’s top executive team in January 2021. With a degree in engineering from the Polytech Sorbonne in Paris, he has had a varied career accumulating broad experience across the whole automotive value chain for various automotive groups including Renault and Nissan.

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He has played an important part in driving Stellantis MEA forward.

“My main role is to lead the region towards market leadership and set ambitious goals under the Dare Forward umbrella. With our ambition to reach 90% regional autonomy, my task is also to develop an industrial production ecosystem. And last but not least, to develop and inspire my team into strong leaders who perform, achieve targets, thrive in their careers and thus contribute to the organisation’s growth.”

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We work together, we win together. We don’t want heroes, we want a collective performance.

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He further points out that the multi-national Group’s characteristics and values are unique. “It doesn’t matter which nationality our people are, there is no centre of gravity. We work together, we win together. We don’t want heroes, we want a collective performance. This makes everybody at home in our group,” says Cherfan, himself coming from an international background.

The human factor is also a key part of Stellantis’s localisation strategy. “90% autonomy means producing in the region for the region.

This will position us as by far the most localised player in the region. This will, naturally, have a major impact on the countries’ people

and economies. For example, in Morocco, our activities will employ some 20,000 people indirectly, representing 2.3 billion euros of parts purchased in the country. This will develop a strong industrial base. The impact in South Africa will be similar.”

He further points out that such a degree of localisation is not common in the industry.” We position ourselves as the partner in the country to maximise value creation. We have programmes with universities, we have created dedicated training programmes to upskill local talent. And with 1.2 billion people in our region, there is a lot of brilliant talent to be further developed.”

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