Revenues for Q1 2022. Earlier today, the presentation material used during this call, along with the related press release, was posted under the investor section of Stellantis Group's website. Today, our call is hosted by Richard Palmer, the group's CFO. After his presentation, Mr. Palmer will be available to answer questions from the analysts. Before we begin, I want to point out that any forward-looking statements we might make during today's call are subject to the risks and uncertainties mentioned in the safe harbor statement included on Page 2 of today's presentation. As customary, the call will be governed by that language. Now I would like to hand the call over to Richard Palmer, CFO of Stellantis.
Thank you, Andrea. Good day to everybody. It's good to be here. We're starting on Page 3 with the usual explanation of the fact that we continue to compare our performance to pro forma numbers for Q1 2021. Given that the merger happened halfway through January 2021, we present the numbers as if it had happened on the first of January 2020, in actual fact. It's 2022 actuals for Q1 compared to the pro forma for Q1 2021. We are going to be looking at our net revenue performance for the quarter. Moving to Page 4, a quick summary of some of the highlights on the back of last year's record financials.
We're full speed ahead on the execution of our long-term strategic plan, Dare Forward 2030, which we announced at the beginning of March. For the quarter, we posted strong Q1 revenues with EUR 41.5 billion and a 12% increase over the prior year, despite our consolidated shipments being down 12% year-over-year to just short of 1.4 million units. We'll discuss the drivers of that performance in the next few pages. From a market share point of view, we also had a strong quarter. In South America, we strengthened our leadership position with a 23.6% market share, up 150 basis points. We were overall market leader in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.
In North America, our market share improved 30 basis points to 11.7%, driven by demand for our recent vehicle launches. The Jeep brand was a clear winner with an 80 basis point improvement in its North America share, driven by the 2- and 3-row versions of the all-new Jeep Grand Cherokee, as well as the new Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer. Our market share in enlarged Europe was negatively impacted by product availability as the semiconductor shortages hit us hardest in that region. Our share was down 190 basis points from 20.9% in Q1 2021 to 19% in this quarter, although Q1 2021 was a particularly high performance if you look back at the sequential quarters.
In EU30, we maintained our leading position in commercial vehicles, achieving a 34% share in the quarter. Globally, our BEV sales were up 55% to 60,000 units, primarily driven by enlarged Europe BEV sales, up more than 50% year-over-year. As we progress in the execution of our Dare Forward plan, we've entered into strategic partnerships with Amazon and Foxconn as part of the software strategy. We also executed partnerships with LG Energy Solution and Automotive Cells Company, securing additional battery cell capacity in Canada and in Italy, as outlined in our strategic plan. Two days ago, we announced our mobility brand, Free2move, will become the European leader in the mobility business through the acquisition of Share Now, extending its operations to cover 16 major European cities and five U.S. cities with more than 5 million users.
I'd like to highlight also that last week we paid our EUR 1.04 ordinary dividend to our shareholders, which was approved at our AGM on the 13th of April, and totals a distribution of EUR 3.3 billion. Moving to Page 5, we show the shipments and revenues for the group. The increase in revenues of 12% to EUR 41.5 billion for the quarter shows the strength of our business to weather the recent headwinds caused by volatile macroeconomic conditions, as well as the continued negative impact of unfilled semiconductor orders, which continue to constrain our volumes. We continue to take prompt commercial actions in all segments to protect our revenues and profitability. These drove significant contributions from positive net pricing and vehicle mix in the quarter, facilitated by important product launches that I mentioned earlier.
Moving to Page 6, we show the walk from the pro forma revenues for Q1 2021 to the Q1 2022 revenues. At a segment level, the revenue growth was driven by North America, +30%, and South America, +40%, more than offsetting extended Europe, -9%. Extended Europe was the main reason for the negative volume and market mix, with shipments down -24% or 201,000 units, partially offset by North America, +6% or 29,000 units. These were the main drivers of group shipments being down 193,000 units or 12%.
The main driver was the semiconductor shortages we're experiencing, which are currently more concentrated in a handful of large suppliers with Enlarged Europe in particular, but also MEA and South America more affected than last year, while North America was less affected. This drove a positive regional mix impact at group level, which offset around half the impact of reduced volumes shown in the walk in the volume and market mix bucket. Net price and content and vehicle line mix added EUR 4.5 billion, with all regions showing strong year-over-year improvements. North America accounted for around 50% of the vehicle net price and vehicle line mix improvement, and Enlarged Europe for 25%. South America and Middle East and Africa had the largest percentage improvements, each at over 30% due to pricing to offset inflation and FX translation, respectively.
FX translation was positive at EUR 1.6 billion due to stronger USD versus euro and real versus euro, offset by negative Turkish lira. The other bucket of EUR 0.6 billion positive was driven by lower levels of fleet volumes, particularly in extended Europe, so less buyback sales as well as improved performance in parts and service. Next on Page 7, we review the segments. Starting with North America, as I said previously, Stellantis market share improved by 30 basis points to 11.7% in a market that was down 15%. Share improvement was driven by the Jeep brand, up 80 basis points, and partially offsetting Dodge brand due to the discontinued Grand Caravan and Journey. Total sales reached 462,000 units, down 13%, with shipments of 480,000, up 6%.
There was some minimal replenishment of dealer stock levels, which finished at just short of 300,000 units. Shipment growth was driven by Jeep, up 50,000 units due to the great Jeep Grand Cherokee L and Wagoneer Grand Wagoneer, with Ram down 14,000 units due to reduced shipments of Ram 1500 and ProMaster. Revenues were up 30% or nearly EUR 5 billion with volume and market mix, price, vehicle mix and FX all contributing as the new products gave a further boost to the region's continued strong performance. Moving to Enlarged Europe, this was the region most impacted by semiconductor shortages in the quarter, as I mentioned. In EU30, the market was down 12%, with some key markets down more, such as Italy down 23%, Spain down 16%, and France down 19%.
Of our 190 basis points reduction in share, 30 basis points was due to market mix. Dealer stock levels were down in the quarter, with sales of 678,000 units exceeding shipments of 622,000. The shipments were therefore down 24% despite the benefit of strong demand for new launches such as Opel Mokka, Fiat Scudo, and Fiat New 500. The impact on revenues was mitigated by improved pricing across all brands and positive vehicle line mix due to the run out of the A-segment C1 and 108 vehicles, as well as increased LEV mix. Regarding Middle East and Africa, market share was down 40 basis points to 11.2%, despite our share being up in a number of the main markets in the region.
This was due to market mix with Turkey, where our share is around 30%, was down 24%, whereas the overall region was down 7%. Consolidated shipments were down 4% to 67,000 units due to shortages of vehicles mainly from European plants. Revenues were up 7% as the team took strong pricing actions over and above those needed to manage cost inflation to offset significant FX impacts in Turkey in particular. Moving to Page 8, South America had a strong quarter, further consolidating its market leadership, as driven by Peugeot and Citroën, with Opel, Jeep and Ram also all positive and offsetting some share loss by Fiat due to semiconductor shortages. Sales reached 184,000 units, down 5% in an industry that was down 11%.
Shipments were down 8% due to increased semiconductor losses versus prior period, especially impacting the Fiat brand. Revenues were up a strong 40% or EUR 0.8 billion, driven by strong positive pricing in all markets, positive vehicle mix due to Fiat Pulse, Fiat Novo Uno, and Jeep Commander, and positive FX due to real appreciation. China and India-Asia Pacific consolidated volumes were down 7%. Jeep Grand Cherokee and Wrangler were up in China, as were Jeep Compass and Peugeot 3008 in India and Asia Pacific. These were more than offset by shortages on other products. Positive pricing was driven by actions in Japan and Korea, and content mix was driven by the Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA and Stelvio Veloce. Maserati shipments were down 20%, mainly as a result of reduced volumes in China.
Revenues were down just 5% due to better pricing on model year 2022 vehicles and positive vehicle mix due to MC20 shipments. The brand is now very focused on the upcoming launch of the all-new Maserati Grecale at the end of Q2. On Page 9, we show the status of our inventory. Compared to last March, total inventories are down 35% to 807,000 units. Compared to December inventory, we are basically flat, but dealer inventory is down 10% offset by an increase in company inventory compared to the seasonally low level at year-end as the plants go down for year-end shutdown. The sequential reduction in dealer inventory was driven by semiconductor shortages in Enlarged Europe, taking dealer inventory to 217,000 units, the lowest quarter point we have had.
Whereas North America was actually up again for the Q2 in a row to just short of 300,000 units compared to the low point at the end of Q3 2021. The other segment's dealer inventory levels were all slightly down compared to year-end levels. Moving to Page 10, we review our full year outlook. We've reduced our 2022 industry outlook in North America from up 3% to stable, and in Enlarged Europe from up 3% to down 2% as a result of the slower start in those markets due to the supply chain shortages driving reduced product availability, but also due to economic uncertainties which are impacting trading conditions, particularly in Europe.
Nonetheless, based on our strong revenue performance in the quarter, we confirm our full year 2022 guidance of double-digit AOI margins and positive industrial free cash flows. We have some key new products in market which will support our performance for the rest of the year, such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Commander, Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, Fiat Pulse, Opel Mokka, Peugeot 308, DS 4, and Maserati MC20. We will have further important product launches in the rest of 2022, including the Maserati Grecale, Opel Astra, and Alfa Romeo Tonale. We should note that full year volume forecasting continues to be challenging due to the continued shortages of semiconductors, and we continue to have limited visibility as to when volumes might significantly improve.
We believe that any sequential improvement in 2022 is likely to be marginal and weighted towards the end of the year, even if Q3 is expected to be better than last year due to significant impact of Malaysia in that quarter. H1 volumes will continue to be challenging, but we're confident that we can continue to deliver on our financial commitments for the year. Thanks to you all for attending this call, and now we can move to Q&A.
Thank you very much. If you would like to ask a question or make a contribution on the call today, please press star one on your telephone keypads now, please. Please ensure your line is unmuted locally, and then you'll be introduced into the call. That is star one on your telephone keypads now, please. Our first question comes from the line of Patrick Hummel from UBS. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you. Good afternoon, Richard. I'd like to ask you two questions. The first one is on the dynamics around pricing versus raw materials. You obviously had a very, very strong price mix positive contribution in the Q1 , and I guess, I mean, you haven't disclosed it, but probably the year-over-year increase in raw mats was less than the EUR 2.6 billion that you were able to book in the revenue bridge on price and content. For how long do you think you can sustain price mix increasing more than the raw mats? If you can give any updated view on how big the raw mats headwinds will be for the remainder of the year.
Obviously, the market is thinking that margins will at some point get squeezed. That's what the valuations at least are telling us. I'm just curious to hear your thoughts about your pricing strength in the coming quarters versus raw materials increase. The second one is on order intake. I mean, clearly inventories are low. I'm just curious, we heard from a competitor of yours that order intake is somewhat softer year-over-year, but there is a big order bank to execute on. If you can just share your latest data points as far as order intake is concerned, that would be much appreciated. Thank you.
Thank you, Patrick. So in terms of price versus raw materials, clearly we had a another strong quarter in terms of pricing, as you mentioned, which if I look at a group level is something like 7% up, year-over-year, and in line with the, you know, continued increasing in price levels. I think we're very confident that we can continue to offset the raw material inflation headwinds with pricing. The number we gave you for the full year for raw mats was about EUR 4 billion, which, honestly, I think might be a little shy of where we will end up for the full year, frankly, given the most recent movements in the market. You know, EUR 4 billion on, you know, four...
That's something like 2.5% of our run rate revenues based on Q1. You know, 2.5 compared to 7, we're well ahead of the curve in terms of offsetting raw material impacts. Obviously, there are other inflationary impacts as well in our cost base, but they are of a much lower quantum than the raw material impact. I think, you know, we've been ahead of the curve in pricing. I think the fact that our product lineup continues to be very competitive and we have a lot of important launches that we just made and further launches coming across our brands.
I think also, you know, augurs well for us to be able to continue to price with the competitive product we have. In terms of order intake, we have a very strong backlog of orders in the order bank for the regions in general. You know, I think at the minute the concern is more about supply than demand. It's difficult to tell to some extent the mix of those two impacts on, you know, on the marketplace and demand. I think we're seeing a continued strong demand in North America. You know, the overall SAAR is sort of coming back slowly through month by month that we've seen in the last few months from a relatively low start.
Our product lineup is, you know, really strong in North America. As we got a bit more production year-over-year, you can see that our share is going up despite the fact that we don't have very much volume at all for fleet at the moment. Europe's a bit more complex, I think, because, you know, year-over-year, our comparison to Q1 of last year is impacted in terms of share by a very strong Q1 last year. If you look at the sort of sequential share performance, it's quite in line from a quarterly point of view.
The level of inventory we have in Europe, like I said, is at its lowest level from a quarter point since we've been in this in Stellantis, which we're convinced is impacting our ability to you know to move quickly in the marketplace and be competitive from a share point of view. That's definitely an impact. There's clearly also a lot of volatility and a lot of concerns from consumers given the overall macro situation in Europe. I think yeah you could say that it's a supply issue, but I'm sure there's an element of demand as well in Europe. Having said that, I think our share was relatively healthy. It was impacted by supply, and we need to work on that aspect.
The vehicle lineup is strong. We continue to launch vehicles. You know, we're launching. The Mokka is doing very well for Opel. The 308 is doing very well for Peugeot. The Fiat 500e and the other BEVs were up over 50% year-over-year, which is good, clearly. We have some interesting launches coming. I think it's important that we continue to be competitive on the product side, and, you know, be more competitive than the competition. That's what it's all about.
If I can just follow up, Richard, on those EUR 4 billion or a little more raw material headwinds. Does that also factor in that suppliers are facing a lot of inflationary pressures and obviously they're under pressure to also renegotiate terms with the OEMs? Or was that comment purely related to the higher commodities that make you say it's gonna be a little bit more than EUR 4 billion maybe?
Well, it's that the EUR 4 billion is the commodities. It's the raw materials.
Yeah.
In fact, it includes our exposure to raw materials through indexation, also with supplier contracts, but it's really specific to raw mats. There are other impacts as well, like I said, on energy, on labor, on transportation, which would increase that number, but they're not of the same size as the raw mat impact.
Understood. Thank you very much, Richard.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Our next question comes from the line of Thomas Besson from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. It's Thomas Besson with Kepler Cheuvreux. I have two questions as well, please. I know it's a revenue call, but there's one point I'd like to come back on, which is not directly related to revenue for Stellantis. You've announced that you would buy back shares. I'd like to know if there's something you could share with us on the timeline of that possibility and how you would proceed to buy back these up to 5% shares you've mentioned on March first. That's the first question.
The second question, can you say a bit more about the acquisition that has just been announced, making you the undisputed market leader in mobility services, in terms of any visible impact on your accounts, and where it's going to be visible on your accounts, please? Thank you.
Yes, Thomas. Hello. On the share buyback, as we mentioned, this is something that we put into our use of capital going forward. I don't have anything to announce as of today, but it's clearly a part of our capital allocation that we are looking at. You know, when we have something to say, we will update you. For the moment, I don't have any particular news on where we are on that process other than saying that we have capital allocated as we move forward. On the mobility segment, we haven't closed the deal yet, so when we've closed, we'll give you a bit more information on the impact from a financial point of view.
I think we're, you know, very excited about the fact that we can move into a much larger position in mobility, and it's an extension of our ability to provide, you know, mobility services to our customers beyond the sale of the vehicle. You know, I think we're very pleased with that and we see a big opportunity there as we'd outlined in our Dare Forward plan. I think we'll give you a bit more information on the impact from a financial point of view when we've closed.
Okay. If I follow up on that last point, I mean, historically, nobody seems to have made much money with that kind of businesses. Effectively, you are confident you're going to be able to do much better than the previous owners of this operation?
Yeah, we don't intend to lose money, Thomas. That's not what we're.
I know.
Here to do.
I think they did quite a bit.
Well, I can't comment now on their.
Thank you.
On their success or not in managing the asset. We think the asset's an interesting opportunity for us. Obviously, we need to execute on that. I think you as you followed Stellantis and the management, the management is very focused on profitability. Also, as we showed in Dare Forward, we're focused on, you know, extending our product offering into the marketplace. You know, this is a very interesting asset with an interesting footprint, and we feel we can manage it profitably. As we close the transaction, we'll give you a bit more information about the whys and wherefores of that. You know, it's quite exciting, I think.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from the line of George Galliers from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you for taking my question. Richard, just when we look at the revenue bridge, we obviously see very strong performance from pricing and from mix, line items which typically have a fairly healthy drop through to the EBIT line. Obviously, we're only one quarter in, but is it fair to conclude that development should make for a strong margin performance relative to the same period last year? Or in addition to the raw materials and variable inflationary pressures you've already mentioned, is there a substantial fixed cost step up that we should bear in mind? The second question I had was whether you have any insights into the U.S. consumers' sensitivity to higher interest rates, and what that could mean potentially for price mix when U.S. consumers are looking to spec their large pickup trucks and SUVs. Thank you.
Thanks, George. The answer to the first question is yes. As you say, obviously a large part of the price and a smaller but significant part of mix comes through to the bottom line. I think H1 margin performance should be healthy. We continue to focus on double digit for the year and the H1 looks like we're going in a very positive direction. In terms of U.S. consumer, yeah, I think the U.S. consumer is always focused on certain sorts of vehicles. You know, to your point, the question is the level of equipment and the sort of versions that they purchase if interest rates move up.
I think the usual level of financing and the competitiveness in the market at the moment, the type of increases we're seeing aren't creating any significant impact on the consumer demand. It's fair to say obviously that if rates start to take off, then given the high level of finance sales, there would be an impact. You know, frankly, I don't think that's a short-term issue. I think the bigger risk potentially is used car values. When and if supply comes back. But again, as we talked about the current supply continues to be constrained, and we're seeing a very strong pricing environment. I think, based on what we see today, we expect that to continue for 2022.
We'll see sort of medium-term what happens. Again, it all goes down, I think, to us, what we can control, and we have a very strong product lineup. We're very focused on our cost base, and therefore our profitability. We've seen our profitability in North America relative to our competition is very strong. I think, you know, bodes well for us continuing to be successful in that region. Not particularly concerned about rates in the U.S. at the moment.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Our next question comes from the line of Stephen Reitman from Societe Generale . Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, Richard. Thank you. Question, focusing on North America, clearly very strong performance there. Could you talk a bit more about the performance of the Grand Wagoneer, the Wagoneer and the Grand Cherokee L? What are you seeing in terms of mix, the demand for high trim levels and the pricing? Are you getting the vehicles into the over $100,000 level for the Grand Wagoneer, the sort of top-line versions as well? Also the kind of ramp you're seeing on those vehicles.
Yeah, Stephen. We are definitely pricing it in the sort of segments you're talking about on the Grand Wagoneer. It's, as you know, not uncommon for newly launched vehicles to have positive and high mix at the beginning of their life. I think, you know, the Jeep brand going into this new segment with two very competitive vehicles is doing very well on the high end. I think probably where we've been a bit less competitive is on the lower end because we haven't fully launched all of the versions particularly on the Wagoneer. That is in progress. I think our volumes and overall profitability through those two vehicles will continue to improve.
We shipped, you know, something like 15,000 units in the Q1 . You know, I think we have a lot of scope to continue to improve our overall contribution. Clearly, it's an exclusive vehicle, so we're not pushing volume. We're making sure the price position is the driver, and then the demand is really dictated by, you know, the quality of the vehicle and the offering that we're giving the customer. But so far, the indications on both vehicles are very strong, and the price points are very high. In terms of the Grand Cherokee, similar story.
You know, we had something like 100,000 units of total Grand Cherokee in the quarter, which is a mix of the old WK version and the new WL version. We're now in the process in JNAP of transitioning to the WL two-row as well. That's gonna have some level of impact on Q2, but nothing significant. Given the constraints we have on semiconductors, nothing significant. I think it's quite exciting as we continue to ramp up volumes of the WL. We'll see the full, you know, the full opportunity that the new WL gives us in the marketplace with both of the plants in the Detroit complex building the new vehicle. You know, Jeep continues to be very strong in the high end.
The more challenging thing has always been selling Jeep in the smaller SUV segments. The WS continues to show the strength of the brand in the higher price points. We're actually seeing quite good performance also from the Jeep Compass in North America at the moment, which has been revamped and is performing quite well, which is also very positive because that's, you know, where we wanna create, you know, demand and loyalty to the brand in the lower end. Because frankly, as we get up to the larger vehicles, it's the brand's always been very strong.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Our next question comes from the line of José Asumendi from JPMorgan Chase & Co. Please go ahead. José, is your line on mute?
Can you hear me now? Hello?
Yeah, we can hear you now, José. Happens to me all the time.
Now? Oh, yeah. Thank you. Hi, Richard. Three items, please. First one, if you could comment please on the weeks of production stoppages you had in the Q1 or maybe how many units of production you lost. Maybe can you help us put this into context into the trend into Q2, is it getting worse, is it getting better? Second, I know you don't talk about profitability by brand, but can you help us understand a bit better what have you been doing in terms of fixed cost reduction or product launches within Fiat brand, either LCV or passenger cars to improve, I think substantially the profitability so far.
Three, I look at your share price, and clearly it doesn't reflect the, you know, the level of execution you are delivering, and you will show in the H1 what I think a very strong set of results in H1. I look at your peers and the best class of, you know, best-in-class peers report quarterly earnings. Is this something you could consider or something you have discussed? I think it will help a lot the market to understand better your high level of execution. Thank you.
I'm doing it now. Thank you, José. I'm gonna have to ask you to repeat the first question 'cause I didn't get it.
Volume, weeks of production disruption, Q1.
Okay.
Put that into context in the future. Yeah, in numbers. That's it.
Understood. You know, yeah, last year we gave you sort of losses compared to planned production. Given that now planned production includes losses, though, it's a bit. I don't think it's a fair comparison to do. We're not giving you the sort of impact of semiconductors per se. You know, I think the level of Q2 is gonna be positive compared to Q1. It normally is from a seasonal point of view, as we ramp up April, May, June going into summer selling season. Obviously January is always a short month because of restarting the plant. You know, I would normally expect Q2 to be better. It's true that semiconductors are unpredictable.
You know, I think based from a financial point of view, I'm not concerned because we're performing very well in terms of our margins, as you can see from the revenue walk, I think. You know, the big challenge is to manage the supply chain. We do expect to see improvements through the year, although it's gonna be step-by-step, as we look at the starting point here with minus 12%. I mean, last year, Q1 we said was down 11% because of semiconductors, and Q4 was down 20%. If you look at sort of stupid math, you could say that we're down a similar level probably to Q4, so sort of flat.
Hopefully we'll see some improvement in the H2 of the year, but I'm not expecting a huge improvement in Q2, frankly. In terms of profitability by brand, you know, I think we don't report the numbers by brand, but I think we're seeing positive trends in profitability across the brands you mentioned in Europe on the ex-FCA side, both because of pricing and discipline on the mix.
As we look at new products coming up, I think we're being more efficient on the spending of capital, which is gonna help our margins as well, because, you know, a lot of the synergies that we talked about last year in which obviously we're continuing to work on, you know, the EUR 3 billion-plus last year, a lot of that was related to lower levels of capital expenditure on the ex-FCA side as we get the synergy benefits of the merger. I think, you know, from a fixed cost point of view, definitely more efficient, and that's driving better margins at long term, and in the short term, pricing actions are helping.
Obviously, purchasing also will start to kick in more from a structural point of view as we start to launch vehicles on the common platforms, which will start, you know, in the next sort of 12 months as we launch vehicles in Europe on common platforms with the PSA vehicles. In terms of the share price, if it were as simple as doing quarterly earnings, I suppose I'd do them. Seemed to be a reasonable investment of time. I think, honestly, I think we need to continue to execute the level we're doing. There's clearly a disparity between our performance and the share price. You know, I think our view is we need to manage the business, and time is a resource that we need to think about carefully.
You know, giving an update on a quarterly basis is not something that we are considering at the moment from a full financials. You know, I think what's important is that we continue to execute and people are going to realize that this is a sustainable level of profitability and that we can, you know, we can keep this plan moving as per the Dare Forward plan that we presented. You know, obviously there are gonna be ups and downs as we go forward, but I think the management team has a lot of credibility. The results are clearly there for everyone to see.
I suppose I and some of us need to do a better job of making sure that people pay attention to that. I'm happy to discuss with you the relative benefits of quarterly earnings. That's fine. I think, you know, all I can say is that so far we're very pleased with the results. We're not very pleased with the share price. It's something we need to work on.
Fair enough. Thank you, Richard. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you very much. The next question comes from the line of Gabriel Adler from Citigroup, Inc. Please go ahead.
Hi, Richard. Thanks for taking my questions. Myself, I want to come back to the Share Now acquisition, 'cause I just want to understand really a bit better the mechanisms by which you think you can improve the profitability of this business, because, you know, it's very clear that, it's challenging to operate these businesses profitably because they require very high utilization of the fleet. Is it mainly related to the scale of Stellantis and cost efficiencies, or are you planning to meaningfully change the way that the business operates? My second question is on North America. On the market share gains that you're making in North America, do you expect these gains to accelerate through the year as you ramp up on the new products that you've already discussed?
You think you've made most of the progress now already when it comes to market share gains? Thank you.
Well, in terms of profitability, yeah, I think we're at double-digit margins. You know, 12 months ago or so, no one expected car companies to operate at double-digit margins. Now everyone's operating at double-digit margins. We all seem to think it's normal. I think, you know, for us, and if you look at the history of PSA, especially, but also FCA, I think margin has always been a primary driver of, you know, measuring the health of the business and its ability to generate value through the cycle.
You know, we have some clear levers that we manage on a daily basis in terms of making sure that the margins are robust across all the business units and that we can't have any stragglers that are in the red for any period of time because it's just not, you know, it's not conducive to this type of industry where we are very capital intensive and there is cyclicality. You know, we need to manage the health of that business through the cycle.
We also, I think, you know, given the merger, I think we still have a lot of opportunity to improve our efficiency on the investments we're making and the new products that will be coming out on the common platforms, I think, will be a very interesting opportunity for us to continue to improve the robustness of our profitability. If you consider that pricing at the moment has some level of anomalous, you know, nature because of scarcity of product, I think our view is that we'll continue to be very focused on price and getting fair value for the product that we put into the market. Obviously, the product needs to be competitive and innovative.
As we do that, then, you know, we also have a significant volume base that if we can manage that properly, locally, regionally and beyond, then we should be able to have, you know, in the top quartile or beyond the top quartile level of competitiveness on cost. We've shown that in terms of CapEx and R&D, we're best in class in terms of efficiency. I think we're managing all the levers. Plus, we're also looking at new business areas, as we talked about earlier with mobility, the Finco in North America, which is a huge opportunity for us in terms of profitability.
If you look at us compared to the competition, that's somewhere where there's a lot of money being made in our competitors' P&Ls, and we need to get our fair share. I think we have, you know, we have Maserati, which isn't pulling its weight today, but has product coming and should start to make money. We have opportunities in MEA, IAP, and China. I think we have clear areas where we can continue to improve our overall profitability, but, you know, we need to be very careful managing the cost base. On the market share in North America, you know, our primary target is not market share, just to be clear.
Going back to your first question, our primary target is margin and profitability and cash flow. You know, we'll price the products at the level that make the financials work properly, and then we need to attract consumers through the competitiveness of the product. It would appear that with you know some of our brands in North America, well, most of them actually so far, you know have performed very well in their respective segments. I think the fact that we have different brands in different segments, very focused, and very clear to the consumer, what they do and what they don't do, is a big advantage for us.
You know, Dodge has a clear mission in the muscle car segments and does a great job there and makes very good margins, and is very competitive. Ram's, you know, growth is clear to everybody over the last, sort of 10 years in terms of share, profitability, mix, price point, everything. Jeep is clearly moving, continuing to move forward. Chrysler is gonna be a very interesting opportunity, I think, that we'll give you more information on as we work through the positioning of the brand and the product. I think, you know, market share in North America ultimately should go up, but it will go up because we'll be focused on product.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Our next question comes from the line of Philippe Houchois from Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you, and good morning, or afternoon, Richard. You have a few questions for me. The first one is on the Ram BEV, so you'll unveil the product in the fall of 2022. Just wondering if you're gonna take orders or I would ask you, what are you gonna tell us? That would defeat the purpose. But I'm just wondering from the feedback you're getting from dealers, are they upset with you that you don't have an electric pickup and Ford and GM are ahead of you, or it's just not really part of the main discussion or feedback you're getting from the dealers? That would be my first question. The second one was on raw material headwinds.
We knew you were gonna probably raise the EUR 4 billion you had initially given us, but you haven't really quantified it. Are we talking 10%, 50%? I mean, Ford and GM pretty much doubled up the headwind. If you can, you know, clarify that would help. What we heard from Ford and GM is mostly that, you know, Ford will just basically offset with price, and GM will offset with price and will also maybe delay some spending on EVs for the future. I'll tell you the market doesn't like it because it's perception that, you know, just playing with price is not sustainable, and it's not your management, it's basically the market is giving you that opportunity. Just trying to gauge how much cost opportunities you still have in North America in terms of synergies.
We can all see the synergies on the European side, other parts of the business. In North America, it's a bit more difficult. Are you confident that really cost, because eventually when price is normalized, if you worked on the cost, you retain the margins better than if you just worked on the pricing. If you could clarify that. Last point for me on the Finco, when you build a Finco, is all the earnings gonna be purely accretive to your earnings, or is there a bit of a trade-off that some of the earnings that you get today not having one will basically disappear? Not quite sure in terms of provisionings or discounts or a type of commercial activity, or should we think that anything you get out of the Finco is gonna be accretive to your group earnings?
Okay, Philippe. Thanks. Good question. On the Ram BEV, I'm not the Ram brand guy, so it's not my job to make any announcements early. I think, as we said, we will be making announcements on it. When Mike Koval's ready, he will do so. To my knowledge, we're not getting any pressure from the dealer body regarding electric pickups today. Frankly, we're doing very well with Ram in the marketplace and, you know, we'll definitely be very focused on the Ram BEV, and we'll get you informed as soon as we're ready.
In terms of the raw materials, my opinion, you know, I will give you a better view in H1, but it's gonna be probably up to 50% higher, the impact.
Right.
That's the sort of, you know, rough number, which if you look at it on a run rate revenue point of view, is like 3.5-3.75% of revenue. You know, you saw 7% of price in the quarter. You know, I think we are ahead of the curve, but you know, the raw material impact will be more than the EUR 4 billion we talked about. We are, you know, we're managing appropriately. To your other point, there are cost opportunities in our North America business because of synergies and also frankly, because we have a much greater focus on the plants and the efficiencies in the plants.
You know, it's also true, yes, in this current environment with stop-go on semiconductors and other components, frankly, not only semiconductors, it's a little bit tough to run the plants at their highest level of efficiency. We've been doing a lot of benchmarking internally to look at our transformation cost and our total cost of product across the North America region and comparing to the rest of Stellantis. I think there are significant opportunities to improve our cost levels. It's not just a pricing game in the way we look at offsetting the impacts of inflation. It's also a cost game, and we're very focused on that. I'm not concerned about our ability to offset the raw material impact from what I've seen so far.
In terms of the Finco, they will basically be accretive because in North America, we get very little economic benefit from the revenue and the income generated by our financing partners. We don't have anything like the sort of arrangement we have with our JV partners in Europe where we get 50%. In North America, it's minimal. Now clearly we need to put capital into the Fincos, and as they build their portfolio at the beginning, there will be some level of provisioning that we'll need to ramp up as well. As you know, when Fincos grow, the initial provisioning does dilute their earnings, but the earnings that we will get will be accretive.
As the portfolio stabilizes, they will, you know, look like everybody else in terms of the generation which will be positive to our business. I think also importantly, the loyalty that the fact that we will control the customer interface a lot more directly is really important in the overall equation of the Finco, plus the fact that we'll be offering a more complete service to the customer. You know, the team is really excited. The team from First Financial is really on it. I think, you know, we're starting to put products into the marketplace on a pilot level, and they're ramping up through the H2 of the year.
Great. Thank you very much, Michael.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. The next question comes from the line of Charles Coldicott from Rothschild & Co. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. I've got a couple, please. First, inventories haven't really restocked, as you mentioned, and they're still around 800,000 units. Do you have an idea of what you think is an ideal amount of inventory that you would like to have, assuming a normal market environment? Second, on cash, in your long-term strategy presentation back in March, you talked about using cash to pay down long-term debt and also to reduce the negative net working capital position, and also at some stage to fund the U.S. pension. To what extent should we expect action on each of those uses of cash in 2022? Or are they things for further down the line?
Actually, if I can squeeze in a final one, there's been a lot of talk from some of your peers recently about splitting their businesses between ICE and BEV portfolios. Given it's a hot topic, could you share your view on the merits of such a proposal? Thank you.
Okay, Charles, thanks for the questions. Inventories. Obviously, it depends on the market conditions, what the absolute number is. You know, I think if you look back, sort of 12 months, 18 months at the combined inventory of the two businesses, we were well north of 1 million. It was like 1.5 million, 1.6 million. We're not going back to that level. Because I think we had too much. You know, we've managed the inventory like we manage the cost base. At the moment, you know, it's a little bit on the low side, but you know, we won't be going back to the levels that we looked at before. I would have said 1 million or a low 1 million sort of number would make sense.
200,000 more maybe would put us in a stronger position to give our customers faster delivery. I don't think we're looking at anything like the sort of historic levels. In terms of cash, you know, I think the cash to pay long-term debt is obviously as it falls due. I don't think there's gonna be any significant impact in 2022 as we sort of, you know, look at gross debt, net debt, but you know, it's more of a medium-term activity. Net working capital, we might see some marginal impact in 2022, but it's not.
That's going to take us, you know, a few years to work on, and it's also going to be a gradual process, so I don't think it's going to drive any big one-off impacts on cash. The U.S. pension, I don't believe will make any significant contributions this year. Also because I think we need to, you know, get a more stable view on interest rates as we decide how much we need to put into the pension. Clearly, one benefit of interest rates actually going up is our deficit's going down. You know, we need to look at it carefully, the type of funding that we need to put into the pension in a rising interest rate environment.
I think, I don't think we'll be doing anything this year. In terms of the split that people are talking about, ICE, BEV, et cetera, personal opinion, I don't honestly see huge benefits to doing that. I think, you know, we need to manage the company, and the assets we have, through this transition, and there are benefits to having the cash flow being generated by the internal combustion business to drive the technology investments that we need to make. And the overall, you know, the stakeholders in this company, we need to manage them all, including the employees, and I think this is a team effort to go through this transition.
I don't you know I think we're definitely looking at a number of new business areas and being faster and more agile in the way we manage those businesses, as we talked about in our Dare Forward presentation. We're definitely not averse to looking at the structure of the group to drive speed and more entrepreneurial behavior where necessary. You know I think we aren't anticipating any big changes to the structure of the group because I think you know we're in this to manage the assets that we have through the transition. The benefits of and the synergies that we get through the merger we need to realize them. That means you know managing the assets as a whole.
That's my view.
Okay. Thank you very much. Our last question comes from the line of Harald Hendrikse from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Richard. Thanks so much for taking my question. Two quick questions, please. The relative performance of the U.S. business versus Europe was pretty astounding, right? Obviously pushing you more and more towards the more profitable North American market. Just wanted to ask you, is any of that strategy as opposed to underlying conditions, i.e., even if you were able or allowed with the supply chains to take back the volume in Europe, do you actually want that volume, which is obviously lower and lower profitability? The second question, just on that financial services question you had earlier, just can you clarify, is there any arrangement between you and your finance companies in the U.S., relative to residual value gains?
My understanding was without the financial services business, you were not benefiting from those residual value gains. But can you confirm that for me? Thank you.
Yeah. On the second question, substantially, that's true. We have different partners with slightly different arrangements today, but yeah, substantially, we don't get any significant improvement directly from residual value gains. Obviously, we get indirectly through the value of consumers' trade-ins when they buy new cars, but we don't get the residual value impact on the portfolio. Sorry, your first question is escaping me now. I'm having a-
Just the Europe versus U.S. was really extreme, wasn't it? I'm just wondering whether you're actually managing that specifically.
Yeah. Thank you. Well, no. I mean, our European business, you know, made 10% margins, so, you know, it's a profitable business. Very competitive among its peers, arguably the best performer in Europe. Well, not everybody reports their regional results, but, you know, absolutely very important to us and one of, you know, one of the two key engines of our current financial performance. We absolutely want more volume in Europe. There's no doubt that we're not, we're definitely not moving away from European volume. We frankly got impacted by a handful of supply issues that have disproportionately impacted our European products. There is some level of commonality between the products on either side of the Atlantic, but not that much.
In reality, it's just specific issues hitting the European products and conditioning our ability to build cars in the quarter.
Perfect. All right. Thank you.
Thank you, Harald.
Thank you very much. I will now turn you back over to your host.
Okay, guys. Well, thank you very much for everybody for attending the call, and have a good day.
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