'전기차 올인' 유럽 40조 증발.."디젤 부활" 중국에 '백기 투항' / SBS / AFTER 8NEWS / 권영인 파리 특파원

00:00 Stellantis’ 22.3 Billion Euro Deficit, Is It All Due to Electric Vehicles? 01:34 Revival of 'Diesel Cars' Due to China? 03:16 "Let's Make Chinese Cars in Volkswagen's Idle Factories" 04:43 EU Brings Out IAA, What Is China's Reaction? 1. Stellantis’ 22.3 Billion Euro Deficit, Is It All Due to Electric Vehicles? This is Paris. Today, I would like to talk about automobiles. The representative automotive brands here in France are Peugeot and Renault. Among them, Peugeot belongs to a multinational group called Stellantis, along with Citroën. While it includes the US companies Chrysler and Jeep, it also includes Italy's Fiat, so it is considered a core enterprise in Europe. Stellantis incurred a total deficit of 22.3 billion euros last year. This is a massive deficit approaching 40 trillion won in Korean currency. It is the second-largest deficit figure in French history for a single company. Although Stellantis is a multinational corporation, the French government is a major shareholder and the Peugeot family still holds a core stake, so the French people view it as their own national company. This is why the shock of the deficit was so significant. The reason for this massive deficit is precisely electric vehicles (EVs). Stellantis put forward an all-in strategy to make all new cars in Europe electric vehicles by 2030. It aggressively established battery joint ventures and poured money into the EV business. However, last year, the proportion of EVs among total new car sales was only 19.5%. Even with subsidies and price reductions, it failed to exceed 20%. They had expected an explosive growth in EVs, but looking at the current situation, they concluded that forecast was wrong. Having reached this conclusion, they decided to scale back their EV business before losing even more money. The losses incurred from shutting down that EV business led to a deficit exceeding 30 trillion won last year. 2. The Revival of 'Diesel Cars' Due to China? In fact, it was China that had a major influence on this decision. Although the electric vehicle (EV) market fell short of expectations, Chinese EV sales in Europe have grown rapidly year after year, climbing like a leap up a staircase. They doubled last year alone and accounted for 6% of the total EV market. In the case of BYD, sales increased by 268.6%. While this represents the overall European average, looking at individual countries, BYD's market penetration was much faster in major nations, such as Germany (706%) and the UK (485%). Here in Paris, it feels like I can actually see new BYD cars appearing one by one on the road every morning on my way to work. As Chinese cars, emphasizing cost-effectiveness in the EV sector, are aggressively entering the European market, Stellantis, finding it impossible to compete solely on price, changed its strategy to drastically reduce its EV fleet. While it doesn't seem like a situation to worry about other countries, what is somewhat unfortunate here is that one of the alternatives Stellantis chose to reduce its EV fleet was the revival of diesel cars. They made such a fuss, practically raising their voices, about phasing out diesel cars to reduce carbon emissions, but now that it looks like they are losing the battle against electric vehicles, they have decided to resume production of diesel engine cars, which they had previously treated as obsolete. There is only one reason: China cannot manufacture diesel cars. It seems unlikely that the market will shift entirely to electric vehicles right now, but going all-in on EVs immediately would likely lead to bankruptcy. Therefore, the intention is to relaunch diesel cars—a lineup China lacks—to weather the storm for a while and secure some ammunition. It is truly a stopgap measure. 3. "Let's make Chinese cars in Volkswagen's idle factories" Is Stellantis the only one doing this? Renault, France's representative automaker, is in the same boat. Renault also suffered a deficit of 18 trillion won last year. But is France the only one like this? Italy recorded its lowest passenger car production in 71 years last year. No matter how popular SUVs are, the fact that total passenger car production has fallen to an all-time low indicates that sales have plummeted. What about Germany, home to BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi? To start with Volkswagen, the Dresden plant has decided to close for the first time in its 88-year history. The workforce is set to be reduced by 30%. Operating profit for the first quarter of this year also fell by 28% compared to last year, leading to talk of further restructuring. The situation has reached a point where people are suggesting that instead of shutting down German car factories and cutting jobs, it would be better to convert them into production plants for Chinese cars that are currently selling well, thereby preserving jobs. Even the head of the relevant local government is making this suggestion. Mercedes-Benz and BMW are not currently in a state of...