Not only the dispute with the unions at the German locations is currently causing problems for the Opel parent company Stellantis.

Like other manufacturers, the world's fourth-largest car company in terms of sales is suffering from an acute shortage of materials.

This has a noticeable impact on production.

In addition to Opel, the group includes brands such as Citroën, Peugeot and Fiat.

Niklas Záboji

Business correspondent in Paris

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As Stellantis announced on Thursday, vehicle sales in the third quarter of this year were around 27 percent lower than in the third quarter of the previous year.

Due to measures such as price increases or the sale of particularly expensive vehicles, sales within the year were not quite as strong, but also fell significantly by 14 percent.

Stellantis sold a total of 1.1 million vehicles in July, August and September.

That is far less than planned.

Around 600,000 cars could not have been produced in the summer quarter just because of the semiconductor shortage, the group announced.

Competitors such as Renault had recently estimated the losses to be of a similar magnitude.

Success of recent vehicle launches

For the full year, the group is sticking to its target of a return on sales of around 10 percent - provided that the material shortage does not worsen and there are no further corona lockdowns in Europe and the USA.

Stellantis was created at the beginning of this year from the merger of Fiat Chrysler and the PSA Group.

However, improvement is in sight, emphasized CFO Richard Palmer on Thursday.

“The trend is positive.

We are seeing stabilization in supply and an improvement in production month on month, ”he said.

The loss of production at the end of the year will not be as high as in summer due to missing parts.

Palmer also attributes the fact that sales did not buckle as much as sales to the success of the latest vehicle launches, not least in the e-car segment.

The most recent market launches include the DS 4 from Citroën, the new Opel Mokka and the new Peugeot 308. At the beginning of 2022, the Jeep Group's Grand Cherokee with electric drive will also hit the market.

The Stellantis share was slightly positive in early trading on Thursday.