04/07/2025

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Stellantis warns of plant closures automaker Stellantis may close factories in the coming months because sales of electric light commercial vehicles are not finding enough clients, its European chief warned on Wednesday. Jean-Philippe Imparato also said EU targets for increasing the bloc’s fleet of e-van vehicles would be impossible to reach, putting the company at risk of billions of euros in fines. “We’re just a few months’ away from disaster,” Imparato said at the Stellantis factory in Hordain, northern France, where around 2,600 employees produce commercial vans for the Citroen, Peugeot, Fiat and Opel brands. The company has said it faces fines of €2.6 billion (RM13 billion) over the three years to end-2027 if e-vans remain at the current level of 9% of the European market. It says EU targets call for e-vans to represent 13% of the overall fleet in 2025 before rising to 24% in 2027. “Everybody tells me, ‘Don’t worry, you won’t have to pay them’,”Imparato said. “But for now all I have are statements. There’s no sense of urgency. “If I have to pay this penalty, I shut down factories, it’s inevitable,” he said, because the targets mean Stellantis would have to cut back on production of diesel vans. The company also has van factories in Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain. Stellantis is one of Europe’s biggest producers of light commercial vehicles, used for transport of goods and people. European automakers are bristling as e-vehicle sales lag despite Brussels’ target that they make up 100% of new sales by 2035. – AFP Microsoft to lay off several thousand employees SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft on Wednesday said it was slashing a little less than 4% of its global workforce as it seeks to cut layers of middle management and leverage new technologies. “We continue to implement organisational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace,” a Microsoft spokesperson said. The cloud computing giant did not disclose the total amount of lost jobs but as of June 2024 it employed 228,000 people, bringing the latest layoffs to about 9,000 people. The job cuts follow a round in May that saw about 6,000 positions culled from its global workforce. The firm, which is advancing in its plans to deploy AI across all its products, said it was working to “empower employees to spend more time focusing on meaningful work by leveraging new technologies and capabilities”. “Even in the best of times, we have regularly adjusted our workforce to meet the strategic demands of the business,” the company added. The company, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, was one of the first tech giants to double down on artificial intelligence when the launch of ChatGPT in 2022 rocked the tech industry. – AFP PARIS: US-European

Tesla reports another hefty drop in auto sales

Chinese rivals have been winning over buyers. Tesla had said it would start producing a cheaper vehicle – expected to be a pared-down Model Y – by the end of June, but Reuters reported in April it was delayed by at least a few months. An escalating feud between Musk and US President Donald Trump over the tax bill has also worried investors as it could potentially alienate more buyers after Musk’s embrace of right-wing politics eroded demand in Europe and the US and increase regulatory scrutiny of the robotaxis that are central to its nearly trillion-dollar valuation. In the second quarter to June 30, Tesla handed over 384,122 vehicles, down from 443,956 units a year ago. Still, the number marked an increase of 14% from the January-March period. Analysts expected the company to deliver 394,378 vehicles,

estimates from 10 analysts over the past month. “While overall deliveries are still down year-over-year, the rate of decline has slowed significantly – ndicating a possible bottoming out and even the potential for growth in the second half of the year,” said Sandeep Rao, a senior researcher at Leverage Shares, which also holds Tesla shares. Tesla in June snapped eight straight months of sales decline in China, a sign that its refreshed Model Y crossover SUV was attracting some buyers despite tough competition from more affordable Chinese rivals such as BYD. Some analysts said Tesla has benefited from its premium, reliable brand image in China, where local buyers are growing wary of domestic automakers reselling lightly used vehicles as new – a practice known as “zero-mileage used cars”. to a “personal matter”. “The chancellor is going nowhere. She has the prime minister’s full backing,” Starmer’s press secretary said. Asked why he had not confirmed faith in Reeves when asked in the House of Commons, she said: “He has done so repeatedly.” “The chancellor and the prime minister are focused entirely on delivering for working people.” Starmer later told the BBC that Reeves had done “an excellent job as chancellor” and would remain in the job for “a very long time to come”. He said her tears at the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session had “nothing to do with politics” and it was “absolutely wrong” to suggest otherwise. Asked about why Reeves was upset, her spokesman said in a statement: “It’s a personal matter, which, as you would expect, we are not going to get into.” “The chancellor will be working out of Downing Street this afternoon.” Starmer backed down on the welfare plans on Tuesday after a rebellion by MPs from his own party, in a major blow to his authority. Starmer’s retreat on slashing benefits has left an almost £5 billion (RM28.8 billion) black hole in the chancellor’s plans, leading to the possibility that she will have to raise taxes on “working people”, something that she has repeatedly ruled out. Reeves has also ruled out tweaking her self-imposed rule that day-to-day spending should be met through tax receipts rather than borrowing. – AFP

o Company needs to deliver over one million electric vehicles in H2 to meet growth goal

NEW YORK: Tesla is headed for another year of shrinking sales after it posted a second straight drop in quarterly deliveries, dragged down by CEO Elon Musk’s right-wing political stances and an aging vehicle line-up that has turned off some buyers. The automaker now needs to deliver over one million vehicles in the typically strong second half to avoid another annual sales decline – a task that some analysts say could prove difficult due to tariff-driven economic uncertainty and threats to phase out key EV incentives under the Trump administration’s sweeping tax bill, including the US$7,500 credit on new sales and leases. It reported on Wednesday that deliveries fell 13.5% in the second quarter, missing analysts’ expectations even after Musk said in April that sales had turned a corner.

Still, shares, down about a quarter this year, rose 4.5% as the drop was less severe than the bleakest analysts views, partly helped by a modest demand recovery in the competitive Chinese market, where its refreshed Model Y has gained some traction. Some investors welcomed the numbers, though with caution. “You need two dots to draw a line. I don’t think you can get too excited yet until you have some confirmation (of a demand recovery),” said Camelthorn Investments adviser Shawn Campbell, who personally holds Tesla shares. “We’ve had so much bad news – almost any good news is going to help at this point.”

While Tesla has leaned on offers such as low-cost financing to boost demand, it has yet to roll out long-promised cheaper models in a market where snazzy and feature-packed EVs from its Starmer backs finance minister after tears in Parliament Sales also rose in Norway and Spain last month as some buyers turned to the new Model Y in a region where Musk’s politics had sent Tesla sales into a free fall. – Reuters according to an average of 23 estimates from Visible Alpha, although projections dropped as low as 360,080 units based on

LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday said that Finance Minister Rachel Reeves would remain in her role for “a very long time to come” after she appeared visibly upset in parliament as rumours swirled around her future. Tears rolled down Reeves’ face

that Reeves could lose her job. The pound slumped more than 1% against the dollar on Wednesday and London’s stock market retreated amid the speculation. A spokesman for Starmer later told reporters that Reeves had his “full backing”, while a spokesman for Reeves said she had been upset due

after Starmer declined to guarantee that she would remain in place until the next general election, likely in 2029. It came after his Labour government U-turned over key welfare spending cuts, wiping out a multibillion-pound boost to public finances and triggering speculation

Reeves appears tearful during the Prime Minister’s Questions session in the House of Commons. – AFPPIC/PRU