Stellantis cited the UK's zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate when it announced the closure of its van factory in Bedfordshire on Tuesday, putting 1,100 workers at risk of redundancy or relocation to its factory making smaller vans in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.
However, Natalie Knight, Stellantis's chief financial officer, told a conference in September the business expected to make a profit from British sales and to meet the mandate targets, avoiding steep fines.
The comments appear to undermine Stellantis's repeated claims that the factory, which makes the Vivaro van, was threatened by the mandate.
Carmakers have launched a months-long lobbying effort to persuade the government to relax the mandate, which aims to spur the shift away from polluting petrol and diesel vehicles towards cleaner battery cars and vans. Those efforts culminated on Tuesday night, when the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, told a dinner for 1,000 car industry executives that the government would fast-track changes to the mandate.
Stellantis's decision to make its closure announcement on Tuesday afternoon was widely seen as a deliberate snub to the government.
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