Peugeot SA will accelerate its cost-cutting efforts to offset the impact of the lower profitability it expects from its growing range of hybrid and battery-electric cars, CEO Carlos Tavares said July 24.

The French automaker, whose brands also include Citroën, Opel and Vauxhall, plans to offer electrified options across all its models by 2025. Though battery costs are falling, their still comparatively high price is the main reason why electric cars cost more than their engine-driven counterparts. With most cells imported from specialist Asian producers, it is a cost over which major carmakers have little control.

Peugeot is working through a 2016-2021 growth plan branded "Push to Pass" to make its operations leaner in an increasingly competitive automotive industry, but Tavares said that would have to be sped up.

"You can expect an acceleration of cost reductions. Per-unit profitability will come down with EVs so they will try to cut costs to maintain profit," Tavares said in a presentation following the publication of Peugeot's earnings for the first half of 2019.

"The DNA of this company is to do more with less. The DNA of this company is not to announce tens of billions of euros to go in one direction or another direction," Tavares said. Restructuring costs were likely to rise on average across the industry as it adapts to the myriad changes taking place within it, he said.

Regarding Brexit, Tavares called on U.K. politicians to speed progress toward a resolution, be that leaving the European Union or staying, so that the car industry could take the necessary measures. However, the executive reiterated that the U.K. needs to leave the EU with the terms of its departure and future trading with the bloc agreed upon beforehand. A "no-deal" Brexit raises the prospect that U.K.-made cars would face tariffs on export to Europe and become uncompetitive.

Tavares said the company did not intend to abandon any particular segment as some rivals are doing, despite having reduced the total number of models across its brands. It will, however, continue to streamline its real estate portfolio to raise average productivity from its sites, Tavares said.