LONDON - Stellantis, forged from the merger of Peugeot and Fiat’s parent companies, will likely decide whether to make a fresh investment in Britain in the next few weeks, its boss said on Tuesday, in an early test for both the carmaker and the Brexit trade deal.
Peugeot-maker PSA said in 2019 it wanted to keep open its northern England Ellesmere Port plant by building the new Vauxhall/Opel Astra there, but that would depend on the outcome of Britain’s departure from the European Union. “We are now deciding where we are going to put those investments and we do not forget ... that we have a strong asset, which is a brand called Vauxhall,” he said on Tuesday.At his first news conference since the creation of Stellantis on Jan. 16, Tavares repeated a promise not to close factories as a result of the merger.
Stellantis, whose brands include Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat and Vauxhall, sold around 340,000 cars in Britain in 2019 but built only 62,000 Astra cars, many of which were exported as firms tend to make a model at one or two sites for sale across Europe.