Peugeot boss on EVs: “it’s not a manufacturer’s place to put the infrastructure in”

The boss of Peugeot reckons the onus of getting more people into electric cars shouldn’t be on carmakers. “There is an obligation on governments to make sure that the infrastructure to stimulate the market is there,” said CEO Linda Jackson when speaking to TopGear.com at the Paris motor show last week.

“I don’t think it’s a manufacturer’s place to actually put the infrastructure in – if true 50 years ago, manufacturers would have been putting in petrol stations,” she added. Perhaps we’ll just skirt around Tesla’s success in deploying charge points with its EVs.

Infrastructure is clearly not the only area the government could be helpful in, either. Since plug-in car grants are only available for UK commercial drivers at the moment, Jackson called for passenger car incentives too. “We’ve got electric vans, and we perform very well [in that market], and that’s super important for us. But at the same time, if we all need to meet our targets for electric cars, I really do believe we need to stimulate the passenger car market.”

Jackson shied away from talking about Chinese EV tariffs, probably because Stellantis (Peugeot’s parent company) has a different strategy. It’s partnered with Leapmotor – a Chinese manufacturer – which gives the European conglomerate a 51 per cent stake in Leapmotor sales outside of China and a 21 per cent stake in its manufacturing in China.

Jackson clarified the motivations behind Stellantis’ tie in with Leapmotor. “To be totally direct, it’s our way to challenge the Chinese.” She rebuffed any suggestion of a threat to the French carmaker’s growth potential, though. If you thought there was some ‘friends close, enemies closer’ vibes, you’d probably be onto something, but Jackson frames it differently. “Like keeping your friends close and then you learn something about them, don’t you?” she replies.

The Chinese brand is looking to sell its highly connected, techie and affordable C10, T03 and B10 models here in the UK from next year. Jackson admits their tech know-how is a very appealing aspect of the partnership. “[The partnership] gives us an opportunity to learn about the technology they use, but for us, it’s just like having another brand. It’s not impinging on my position. It gives us another weapon to able to react in this very, very complicated market.”

Jackson might have a point though – the market for selling electric cars is getting more complicated. There’s a mish-mash of EV manufacturing regulations (hello, rules of origin tariffs and the zero-emission vehicle mandate), mixed with the EU introduction of new (protectionist) tariffs on Chinese EV imports coming into play and it’s hard to know how that will impact UK drivers. That’s without mentioning the potential US ban on Chinese connected car tech and any ripple effect from that.

Just recently Carlos Tavares, Stellantis CEO and thusly Jackson’s boss, said a difficult decision regarding the closure of the Ellesmere Port van manufacturing plant would need to be made. For several months, Stellantis has been voicing concerns about the ZEV mandate, which sets a quota for the number of electric vehicles each carmaker needs to sell (or face a financial penalty), at a time when the demand for EVs has slowed right down.

Jackson says her brand is all geared up to comply. “We’ve invested, we’ve gone multi-energy at this stage and we’re going to buy in credits or anything else [required]. And we are working very, very hard to reduce the cost of electric vehicles. But anything that can stimulate the market is essential.”

Over to you, Mrs Reeves.