(Bloomberg) -- Stellantis NV will pick up a roughly €10 million ($11 million) tab in France to make up for Citroën customers missing out on a government subsidy program that expired at the end of September.
About 3,500 of 5,500 ë-C3 electric vehicles ordered were delivered ahead of the deadline, Thierry Koskas, chief executive officer of the Citroën brand, said Tuesday in a phone interview. For customers who were looking to take advantage of a state-funded EV leasing incentive available only through last month, Stellantis will foot the bill for the subsidy worth around €5,000 per car.
Stellantis started shipping the €23,300 city car months behind schedule in mid-September, due to software issues. The problematic launch was among the challenges the company was struggling with before slashing forecasts on Monday, sending the stock tumbling 15%.
Koskas said the automaker went to great lengths getting as many of the Citroëns to customers as possible before the end of the month.
“There were some 400 trucks criss-crossing France to deliver them,” he said. “Even last night, our dealers were still working hard on this, and we will stand by all other customers who didn’t get them in time.”
A labor union last month blamed ë-C3 delivery delays on Stellantis’ decision to outsource development of the platform underpinning the vehicle.
“I don’t agree with this view, and we didn’t cut corners on costs with this vehicle,” Koskas said. “It’s an entirely new platform, with new software. We just didn’t want to deliver this car until it was perfect.”
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