Stellantis NV (STLA, STLAM.MI) shares dropped by around 13% in early trading on Monday after the company slashed its annual forecasts and announced it would burn through more cash than expected. The reasons cited were worsening market conditions, higher costs for restructuring its U.S. business, and competition from Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers.
Stellantis joined its competitors BMW (BMW.DE, BMWYY), Mercedes (MBG.DE), and Volkswagen (VOW3.DE, VWAGY), which recently also lowered their annual forecasts, citing similar challenges.
The company also warned that it no longer expects positive free cash flow this year and forecasts a cash burn between 5 and 10 billion euros. Stellantis’ operating profit margin is now expected to be between 5.5% and 7.0%, primarily due to the decision to speed up the normalization of inventory levels in the U.S.
Among other measures, Stellantis will reduce shipments to North America by more than 200,000 units in the second half of the year and offer additional incentives on 2024 and older vehicles to improve productivity.