Stellantis, the maker of Peugeot, Fiat and Jeep vehicles, is expected to scale back car production at its French assembly plants over the next three years, the Financial Times reported.
Trade union estimates, based on internal Stellantis presentations last week, indicate that combined production at the group’s five French assembly sites will decline by about 11% between 2025 and 2028.
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Output in France is anticipated to surpass 661,000 vehicles in 2025, rebounding from 565,000 units in 2024, when elevated stock levels and weaker demand weighed on volumes.
However, unions say the company is signalling lower volumes thereafter, with production across the five plants expected to drop below 590,000 units by 2028.
In an interview with the FT in November, Stellantis chief executive Antonio Filosa said: “[The overall European market] lost 3 million cars from pre-Covid to now. This is the equivalent of the capacity of 10 automaker plants. We cannot afford to lose another 3 million cars.”
The sharpest reduction in France is expected at the Poissy facility in the Île-de-France region near Paris, a site that has hosted automotive production since 1937.
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By GlobalDataThe plant currently has around 2,000 employees and builds two models that are scheduled to reach the end of their lifecycle in 2028.
Vehicle output there is projected to fall from more than 90,000 units in 2025 to about 55,000 in 2028.
Stellantis last week announced a €20m investment at Poissy focused on metal work and recycling activities, which the company said would support around 200 jobs.
The group told the FT that a decision on whether to continue assembling vehicles at the site after 2028 will be taken in the first half of 2026, but added that “the factory will not close”.
Union representatives broadly welcomed the commitment to keep the site open, while warning that employment remains under pressure in the absence of new vehicle programmes for Poissy.
“It’s not a panacea. There’s no new project to make cars,” said Laurent Oechsel, of the CFE-CGC union, noting that unions are awaiting further detail on Filosa’s longer-term plan in the new year.
Fabrice Jamart, of the CGT union, was more critical of the latest announcement: “For me, it’s playing to the gallery, to say ‘We are doing something, we’re taking care of you, don’t worry.’ Then when the axe falls, it will be too late.”
Filosa, who became chief executive in June, is due to set out his wider strategy for Stellantis in the coming months.
He is also among a group of automotive leaders pressing the European Commission to soften the proposed 2035 ban on new combustion engine car sales.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called on the Commission to abandon the planned prohibition and allow the continued production of hybrid vehicles after 2035.
Stellantis declined to comment on the specific production projections cited by the unions.
Responding to Merz’s stance, Filosa told the FT: “We now have a great opportunity to rethink the rules and reconcile Europe’s three key objectives: decarbonisation, industrial resilience that protects jobs and strategic autonomy, and affordability.”
