Stellantis’s finance boss had two bits of news this week — the company had done better than expected, revenue-wise, for the first quarter, and it has no plans to split its EV business away from its internal-combustion side.
CFO Richard Palmer said he and Stellantis saw no benefit to so doing, even though rivals like Ford are making moves to separate the EV business.
“We need to manage the company and the assets we have through this transition,” he said. “There are benefits to having the cash flow being generated by the internal combustion business for the investments we need to make.”
He also said the company was open to considering doing things differently, “but we aren’t anticipating any big changes.”
All this among a revenue increase of 12 percent. Selling the right mix of vehicles at the right price helped Stellantis offset any negative impacts from the semi-conductor chip shortage.
“A 12 percent increase in revenue with a 12 percent decrease in volumes indicates a very strong performance on price and mix, which augurs well for our margin performance,” Palmer said.
Palmer believes the chip-shortage situation will improve this year and continue doing so into 2023. “But honestly I cannot give a date for when they are solved,” he added. He also thinks rising raw materials costs could have an impact “up to 50 percent higher.”
[Image: Stellantis]
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