After thousands of complaints, Stellantis assumed in January 2025 that something had gone wrong with its PureTech motors. Seeking maximum cost savings, the company had fallen into faulty production that could cause premature engine failure. Although the monetary cost has been high, the worst thing for the company has been the reputational cost.
So much so that the company has stopped marketing this engine and the replacement forgets the word PureTech. With the productive tap closed and without a new award, the controversial engine has also taken another step forward. A factory that was part of the French automotive industry.
The PureTech. For months, Stellantis customers have been demanding that the company take care of the breakdowns of their PureTech engines in 2024. The company had no choice but to accept the mistake and in January 2025 it confirmed that the warranty on these engines was extended and they would pay for the repairs of all engines that had failed between 2022 and 2024.
The problem is that in the search for extreme cost savingsthe engine design could cause the oil-soaked belt to become contaminated with fuel residue to the point of premature wear that would cause it to break unexpectedly. If the timing belt breaks, engine damage can be fatal.
A problem. The problem for Stellantis is that the damage caused by PureTech motors goes far beyond economic damage. The company has been setting aside tens of millions of euros to face compensation for customer breakages but the worst has been the reputational impact.
To put up a dam, Stellantis has presented the Turbo 100the replacement for the failed propellants. It has done so after the revised versions of the previous engine were also called to go through the workshop for new problems last year. The solution has finally been to nip the issue in the bud.
And goodbye to your factory. With the end of the production of these engines, other news has also come: Stellantis will close the Douvrin plant in France, explain our French colleagues from L’Automobile. The decision is a direct consequence of the poor results of the engines and the change in the company’s strategy.
And the 1.2 Puretech engines were not being sold in Europe but they were being sold in other markets. The company, however, will completely cease production before the end of the year. Once they also stopped manufacturing the 1.5 BlueHDI diesel last year, the plant was already mortally wounded.
Goodbye to decades of history. The closure of the Douvrin plant is sensitive because it is a factory with 57 years behind it. It had been in operation since 1969 and its construction was born from investments by Peugeot and Renault. However, in 2013 it was acquired in its entirety by PSA (of which Peugeot was a part) and from there it passed into the hands of Stellantis after the merger of FCA and PSA.
The company, according to the French media, has relocated 340 employees to another plant to produce batteries and another very similar figure has joined different positions. The fate of 100 workers (half of them temporary) who have not been formally relocated remains to be known.
Another European plant that closes. The closure of said French plant is just another example of how the European motor industry is suffering with the conversion to electric cars. Stellantis has stressed on different occasions that production costs in France are too high (and along the way we have benefited in Spain). Volkswagen assures that will have to lay off 100,000 employees of its German plants for the same reason.
But it is also the certification that Europe continues to move towards the electric car. Although the French plant produced engines for countries outside our borders, we are not competitive against regions such as Morocco, Türkiye or South America…or Poland (where the PureTech that France abandons is still produced). In these countries, producing combustion engines is still the order of the day and at a more affordable price.
Photo | Stellantis
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