There has been a reshuffle on the world’s automotive podium. Volkswagen lost the crown as the world’s largest carmaker by sales to Toyota in 2016 in the wake of its diesel emissions scandal. Now it has seen its fiercest European rival Stellantis eclipse it in market value.
Shares in Stellantis are up nearly 30 per cent since late January, valuing it at €80bn, while VW is valued at €63.8bn, about half what it was worth in 2021. In one sense, the companies are obvious rivals: each owns about a dozen brands from supercars such as VW’s Lamborghini and Stellantis’s Maserati down to more budget offerings. In the latter, VW has Škoda while Stellantis produces Fiat vehicles. Both companies are globe-spanning.
The auto industry is facing a number of existential, yet simultaneous, challenges: the uncertain pace of the shift to electric vehicles, growing competition from Chinese exports, geopolitical trade risks and the collapse of western brands in China. The two carmakers see broadly the same data — yet come to markedly different approaches to these challenges.