Stellantis Chairman John Elkann said that United States tariffs and strict European Union emissions standards were putting automakers at risk at a time when they face increased competition from China.
"With the current path of painful tariffs and overly rigid regulations, the American and European car industries are being put at risk," Elkann said at a shareholders' meeting on Tuesday.
"That would be a tragedy as car manufacturing is a source of jobs, innovation and strong communities," he said.
Elkann, who is steering the group while it looks for a new CEO after Carlos Tavares left late last year, said, "China is on another trajectory" with its auto market set for the first time to overtake in size the US and European markets combined.
"The Department of Commerce is moving forward with the public comment period of Section 232 investigations on pharmaceutical and semiconductor-related products," White House spokesperson Kush Desai says.
'Unrealistic path'
In the United States, automakers are facing "layer upon layer of additional compounding tariffs including those on aluminium, steel and parts" beyond the 25 percent rate imposed on automotive imports, Elkann said.
However, he said he was encouraged by US President Donald Trump's statement on Monday that he was considering some form of tariff reprieve for auto and auto parts imports from Mexico, Canada and other countries.
As for the European Union, Elkann described the bloc's regulation on CO2 emissions as imposing an "unrealistic path to electrification, disconnected from market realities".
"Governments in Europe – sometimes abruptly – withdrew purchase incentives, and the charging infrastructure remains inadequate," he said.
Stellantis, the world's fourth-largest automaker by sales, was formed in 2021 through the merger of Fiat-Chrysler and Peugeot and Citroen maker PSA. Its brands also include Jeep, Alfa Romeo and Opel.
Tech firms helped push Hong Kong more than two percent higher, while Tokyo, Shanghai, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Wellington, Taipei and Manila were all well up as well.
