Sometimes a car executive says the quiet part out loud, and this time the quiet part is “slow down.” Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa says the US will eventually embrace electric vehicles, but the Stellantis CEO EV outlook comes with a catch: it will happen slower than anywhere else.
Filosa spoke Tuesday in Paris, around the motor show, according to Reuters’ report on his remarks. He expects electrification to arrive in America despite sluggish uptake so far. His own words on the pace were blunt: “The level of magnitude and the speed of transition is going to be lower for sure than other regions.”
Why the Stellantis CEO EV view calls the surge a bubble
Then came the line that will get quoted for weeks. “It has been a bubble driven by regulation,” Filosa said. “But then, when the administration has decided to deregulate, the consumers have been preferring other powertrains.”
In plain English, buyers followed the rules, and when the rules loosened, they followed their own tastes. That tracks with the numbers he cited. TipRanks reports he put EVs at about 7% of US auto sales this year, unchanged from five years ago. That figure comes from secondary coverage. It isn’t in the Reuters text we reviewed, so treat it as his claim rather than audited data.
Five years of billions in spending, and the needle has not moved. Awkward, right?
Filosa’s electric vehicles plan: the range-extender wild card
Here’s the part pickup fans should watch. Reuters says interest is growing in the US for range-extender technology in large trucks and SUVs. These vehicles pair an electric drive with a small engine that acts as a generator. Range anxiety goes away.
Filosa was careful to say where that demand comes from. It is “not regulation driven, it’s customer driven.” He also said Stellantis can borrow lessons from Europe’s EV rollout as demand develops in North America. Other brands are wrestling with similar questions, as the Citroen 2CV electric concept aimed at $17,000 shows.
Stellantis has already baked this into its plans. Its May investor day roadmap, filed with the SEC, calls for more than 60 launches through 2030. The mix is 29 battery-electric models, 15 plug-in or range-extended models, 24 hybrids and 39 gas or mild-hybrid vehicles. Translation: the company is not betting the farm on any one answer.
A less global car business shapes the Stellantis EV forecast
The second half of Filosa’s message may matter even more than the EV talk. He said trade barriers have changed how the industry works. “The recent trade regimens around the world have triggered the process of regionalisation,” he said. “So, what was the global industry before, now it’s less global and more regional.”
The takeaway for automakers is to keep global scale but build for local tastes and local rules. A truck-loving Texan and a city commuter in Paris no longer shop for the same product. The tariffs are making that gap official.
Here’s the thing: if you’re shopping for a truck or SUV, what automakers believe about your tastes decides what shows up on the lot. A CEO who says the EV rush was driven by rules, not demand is telling you the lineup is about to tilt toward what buyers actually pick.
The numbers behind the talk
Stellantis has its own reasons to think about regional differences. Its third-quarter shipments were about 1.3 million units, down 1%, MarketScreener reports. Europe grew 10%, helped by fully electric models. North America fell 12%, partly from planned summer shutdowns that hit Jeep Grand Cherokee and Compass output.
So the same company is selling more EVs in Europe while its American business stumbles. That is the regional split in one set of numbers. It also fits a wider pattern, since Maserati’s reported US sales slump points to trouble across the group’s American showrooms.
TipRanks says the stock slipped after the shipment figures and the CEO’s comments. That move is the outlet’s framing, and nobody independently checked its size.
Will Detroit’s rivals say the quiet part out loud too? Or will they keep promising an electric future on a schedule buyers never agreed to?
