Stellantis will suspend vehicle assembly at four of its French factories during October, the Franco-Italian-American group confirmed, citing a mix of component shortages and the need to align output with demand. The stoppages range from five to fifteen days and affect the historic Peugeot plant at Sochaux in the east, Rennes in Brittany, Mulhouse in Alsace and Poissy in the Paris region.
The most closely watched closure is at Sochaux, where upmarket SUVs roll off the line. Production there will stop from 23 to 30 October. In a statement, the company attributed the decision to insufficient availability of certain batteries destined for the long-range versions of its electric vehicles. Stellantis added that demand from business customers for those models has outstripped its ability to secure the necessary cells.
Mulhouse faces the longest halt
At Mulhouse, the interruption will run for fifteen days, from 15 to 30 October. The site is in line to receive €400 million of the €1 billion investment package for France that the group unveiled in June. From 2029, Stellantis intends to assemble three new models there — saloons and compact SUVs — a commitment designed to secure the future of a plant that opened nearly six decades ago.
Rennes will pause from 22 to 30 October. At Poissy, west of the capital, production stops from 19 to 23 October under what the company describes as a fine-tuned stock management strategy, adjusting output to prevailing market demand. In April, Stellantis said it would end EV manufacturing at Poissy by 2028, pivoting the site towards parts production and recycling, plus vehicle preparation and conversion.
The decisions land against a backdrop of wider strain in European manufacturing, where energy costs and shifting supply chains continue to test industrial planners. The group's battery bottleneck echoes concerns raised elsewhere about the resilience of input supplies, a theme that has also coloured debates over Europe's winter energy outlook.
Union anger over short-time working
The CGT union condemned the recourse to short-time working, known in France as chômage partiel. In a statement, the union argued that if fewer cars are being built, the company should retain all staff, including agency workers, slow line speeds and use the breathing space to improve conditions and train employees.
If we are building fewer cars, let's keep everyone, including agency workers, reduce line speeds and take the opportunity to improve working conditions and train employees.
The unrest at Stellantis sites adds to a busy autumn of labour and social tension in France, where student protests have flared across the country in recent weeks. For the government in Paris, the health of the automotive sector — a pillar of French industrial employment — remains a sensitive subject, particularly as the transition to electric mobility reshapes factory footprints from the Nord to the Grand Est.
Stellantis, formed from the merger of PSA and Fiat Chrysler, operates a sprawling network of plants across France, Italy, Spain, Poland and beyond. Its French sites are central to the Peugeot and Citroën brands, and any prolonged disruption carries knock-on effects for suppliers scattered across the region. The group has not indicated whether further stoppages are planned beyond October.
For now, the message from the company is that the pauses are temporary and driven by logistics rather than a structural retreat from French manufacturing. Whether that reassurance holds will depend on how quickly battery supplies normalise — and on how the market for electric vehicles evolves into 2026.
