Stellantis working hard to avoid Volkswagen plant closure scenario, CEO says

TURIN (Reuters) - Stellantis has already taken measures and is working hard to avoid the risk of plant closures facing rival Volkswagen, the carmaker's CEO Carlos Tavares said on Tuesday.

"We have done many unpopular things over the last few years to avoid as much as possible" a situation similar to Volkswagen, Tavares said.

"We have been criticised for that, for taking decisions which were ... not always well understood," Tavares said, adding the key was to sell electric vehicles at the same prices as traditional petrol models.

Earlier this month Europe's largest automaker Volkswagen announced it was considering for the first time in its history to close factories in home country Germany.

Volkswagen's announcement has triggered speculation that more European automakers could assess similar moves to respond to low factory utilisation rates in the region, increasing price pressures from Asian rivals and a tougher economic environment.

"We are working very very hard to avoid that situation and the future will say if we are going to be able to avoid any trouble or not, too soon to say today," Tavares told reporters after inaugurating a global hub for the group's commercial vehicle unit Pro One, in Turin, Italy.

Between 2021 - when it was formed through the merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot maker PSA - and 2023, Stellantis cut its workforce by almost 20,000 in Europe, mostly through voluntary redundancy.

(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari, editing by Cristina Carlevaro and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)