GM Rival Stellantis Might Shut Down Unprofitable Brands
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GM rival Stellantis may opt to shut down some of its brands in an effort to boost profitability. Stellantis recently reported lower-than-expected financial results for the first half of the 2024 calendar year, and the company is facing declining margins and floundering sales. The GM rival says it will focus primarily on the North American market in the coming months.
According to a report from Reuters, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares addressed the company’s new strategy during a recent call with reporters.
“If they don’t make money, we’ll shut them down,” Tavares said, referencing those brands that were not profitable. “We cannot afford to have brands that do not make money.”
Although Tavares did not specifically mention any brand that was under consideration for discontinuation, there are a few in the portfolio that seem likely candidates. These include Lancia and DS, as well as Maserati, the latter of which could be seen as redundant alongside Alfa Romeo, another Italian brand. The core of the company’s American brands, however, including Ram, Jeep, Dodge, and Chrysler, are likely safe from any possible upcoming cuts. High-profit Ram pickups and Jeeps are seen as the company’s primary profit-drivers.
The value of Stellantis’ Milan-listed stock declined by 12.5 percent Thursday following the release of lower-than-expected financial results, bringing the loss in stock value to 22 percent for the year. The automaker reported that adjusted operating income (EBIT) decreased by 40 percent to $9.17 billion in the first half of the year to June 30th, below analysts’ expectations, while adjusted EBIT fell to below 10 percent.
Company CFO Natalie Knight told reporters that the automaker was taking “decisive actions to address operational challenges,” indicating that North America “is the market that needs the most work.”
Meanwhile, Tavares indicated that the automaker’s U.S. team would work through the summer months to improve performance and reduce inventory. “We consider that the job is done in Europe,” Tavares said. “The job is not done in the U.S. and we are now going to take care of that work.”
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FOR ME THOSE ARE THE BRANDS SHOULD DISAPPEAR Indeed, after appearing several unname good chinese car makers, maybe is time to get rid of the past heavy anchor jold by a tiny line. This is case of Chrysler which made wonderful models in past, in fact, a major company, preferred than Gm and Ford, but has to go, now only with 1 Van and this Van is not beaty a Wow. Either Lancia, Lancia, when we lived in Italy, made great sedans as well as the mini car, but the elegance of them was lost with Stellantis Hand. Keep Peugeot which is in good direction design now, do not understand Opel. The Neighbor has a Quatroporte Maserati, he loves the car, the noise and the appearance is not that high for me, for him would be sad !
To be Killed : Abarth, Chrysler, Dodge, DS, Lancia, Vauxhall.
To be Kept : Alfa Romeo, Citroën, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Ram
Dodge has had a lot of success over the years. The brand has always been pretty strong. Has really had a great lineup bringing a little fun to the driving experience. I owned a challenger…loved it. Had a charger in the family..loved it. I had a nitro…looked cool but was for kids to me. For Chrysler, the aspen was huge. The hybrid version I was waiting to buy but they cancelled it. The gas mileage needed some attention. People always asked to look at the interior of mine. At gas stations, really everywhere. Lancia, and abarth…I don’t know anything about. I can’t imagine they can’t find a way to pull dodge and Chrysler out. They can almost make anything in dodge…just make sure you can burn rubber…
but only in USAm in Europe, Brazil, UAE and Asia Dodge since 20 years died
it had some Abarth Fiat 500 here in Germany and Italy France but since the face lift 500, it died too
Lancia makes the new Ym but only few was sold in Italy
Since 1 years the kill of Chrysler 300C Chrysler is never found in Europe since long
Alfa Romeo is profitable??? LMAO! 4,000 units sold in the US last year. Thats it. And here we are worried about the future of Buick.
yep, in europe is sold a lot. in brazil to
In Italy. But not the rest of Europe. Alfa suffers from one basic problem. They are severely lacking in features and tech for the price. Being a drivers car focused only on driving dynamics just doesn’t cut it anymore (as seen in Teslas popularity amongst people with money).
To be killed: all brands except Chrysler brands. Place Chrysler brands up for sale, and disband Stellantis altogether, the merger should have never happened, Stellantis should have never existed in the first place. They have no idea on how to manage 14 brands.
I currently have 3 Stellantis vehicles in my garage and participate in regular car shows, meetups, cruises, and hit the race track a few times a year. Tavares supposedly said he wanted the V8s gone so they wouldn’t have to pay fines. Tavares and Stellantis have told me they no longer want my business by getting rid of their V8s and I can tell you many of their now former customers feel the same.
GM and Ford are also making the V-8 mistake.
This is just another case of a European company not knowing how to manage an American brand. They are totally clueless. There are plenty of holes in their lineup that could be filled with Chrysler and Dodge models if they cared and didn’t try to shove rebranded Italian and French models down our throats. I have nothing positive to say about Stellantis and think the CEO is a dud.
Well…they’ve had since 1998 (DaimlerChrysler merger of “equals”) to figure it out. There’s been several B school studies on how M&A’s succeed and fail. It’s time to strip and flip. The Jeep brand, light Trucks and the N. A. Distribution channels are the only value in the whole portfolio. The days of continuing a brand because of “heritage” are over. Make money or things will be quickly changed.
Well look at the mess Sergio Marchionne made with Dodge and Chrysler. Completely gutted Dodge of its volume models including the minivan and moved it over to the luxury brand. Then proceeded to gut everything else from the luxury brand. I used to hate on GM for ruining SAAB but GM atleast tried to keep the brand independent like Ford did Volvo up until the Epsilon 9-5 redesign where they just couldn’t put up with the itch of Americanizing the brand anymore. But what Marchionne did was flat out criminal. He literally murder the identity of these two brands. He tried to make Dodge into a niche performance brand by stripping its volume models and I don’t know what the hell he was trying to do over at Chrysler. Make it into a minivan brand I guess? Who knows. I will never understand what went through that mans head.
FCA wanted to keep the Grand Carvan in production but it did not meet the ever stringent government crash mandates. That was a nifty van.
Bob Eaton started the deterioration….
Sooooi……… fiat is finally dead? The Pacifica makes chrystler profitable, so it’s safe 🧐
Instead of improving and keeping the V-8 charger challenger 300 just redesign everybody and keep the undercarriages. These were good cause put the hemi back in them. Give people a choice instead of canceling every damn.
Again we have the damn government to blame for this. Draconian fuel/emissions standards are forcing automaker to use smaller engines and kill larger ones.
dEMOCRAT REGULATIONS
There is very little to look at these days on a lot except pickups, SUV’s, CUE’s, etc and the market is saturated with too many brands looking the same. They rode the Hemi Chargers and Challengers a very long time and local dealer still has about six new 2023’s each listing at about $50K. I don’t think the turbo V6/electric Chargers will save Dodge even if you call the ICE version a “hurricane”. Most of their former V8 customers won’t care.
They don’t need Dodge and Ram; whomever made Ram a brand made a mistake. Just go back to Dodge being the entry-level brand like Ford and Chevy and have them sell Dodge pickups with Ram as the model name for the full-size entry. Keep Jeep intact but then move Chrysler more upscale as it traditionally was. It should be more akin to Cadillac and Lincoln. That fixes the US and eliminates one brand here.
I can’t say what to do with Europe but Maserati is too storied of a marque to eliminate.
They split Ram from Dodge because Dodge has lost it’s mainstream appeal and it would be easy to sunset without Ram. I think it was a good move as Ram is mainstream. Personally, I’d love to own a Dodge Charger and might pick up a used one.
Ram charger anyone ???🙃
yep, kill dodge and keep all chrysler products as RAM, cheaper administrative
I know that was the plan at one time but now Dodge is fairly cool thanks to Charger/Challenger so refresh those models, keeping the Hemi, and return the trucks to the Dodge brand. That eliminates one of the too-many Stellantis brands yielding needed cost savings with minimal disruption and it ensures profitability for the Dodge brand. Splitting it up was a mistake. Without the F150, Ford is possibly not profitable either.
I own a 2018 Dodge Charger GT Plus (4wd) with 73,000 miles and a 2022 Chrysler 300S w/5.7L V8 with12,000 miles and have no regrets.
What you are proposing is exactly what I feel they should do. Basically, clean up the mess Marchionne made. Make a striking model for Chrysler (like a Lyriq competitor) but maybe give options for EV and hybrid versions like they did with the Charger. Kill Ram and move everything back to Dodge. Dodge should never have been gutted. Also, move the Pacifica back go Dodge too (this move I will never understand why Marchionne did this).
As for the Euro brands, I would love to see them put more effort into Maserati. At the very least, Maserati should be at Porsches level of prestige. But unfortunately Maserati is too far gone at this point to salvage it. The Grecale which is a nice redesign barely even sells. There was a time where the Levante did well but the damn vehicle took too much from the Chrysler parts bin which killed its unique identity. I even remember there were rumors of building it at the Jefferson plant along side the Grand Cherokee in Michigan. I think they will kill it off in favor of Alfa Romeo. Another one who is ailing big time. Last year the brand posted only 4,779 sales. I love Alfas but their cars need to have more tech if they want to compete with the likes of the Germans. Maybe they’ll keep Alfa because they are providing the majority of the new platforms for brands like Jeep.
Tavares would rather be GM’s CEO. Well, he got Opel and is doing a very bad job at it.
I never thought I’d ever mention this, Tavares is worse than the GM and the Ford CEO. As long as Tavares is in charge, all Chrysler brands will be extinct in less than 7 years.
It’s ignorant to get rid of Chrysler and Dodge. They are basically cost less brands since they share a dealer network with Jeep and Ram.
Believe it or not, the Chrysler brand has decent sales numbers for just selling one minivan. I just wish Stellantis would put Chrysler back where it belongs as the luxury arm of the American brands. It probably won’t be able to be at Cadillacs level but at least Buicks level.
Hey Stellantis … decades ago American Motors made a 2 door, 2 wheel drive Wrangler variant for the US Postal Service, there are several still to be found around rural towns like mine. So Stellantis with that thought in mind how about you bring out some 2 wheel drive Wranglers in both the 2 an 4 door variants. There’s quite a market out there for vehicles that look good but the customer don’t need 4WD, make’em be dependable, on the 2 door only offer with the 4 cyc engine. And in a 2 wheel drive would likely sell for around $29K in the Sport model w/hard top and a few other options. I know I’d like one, and the possible 30+ mpg wouldn’t be bad either. Here’s another thought … bring back the Jeep Commanche pickup in both a 2WD & 4WD.
You can literally go buy a new 6-speed manual, V6, 4WD, 2-door Jeep Wrangler Sport for $32K. The hard top is a $1700 option. There would be no way Jeep could remove 4WD, add the hard top and a “few more options” as standard and keep the price under $32K. Those days are long gone.
Actually this is all is caused by democrats liberals Biden policies and the green deal with it vote accordingly… And also the biggest thing is nobody wants these stupid electric vehicles
Here is the reality. Jeep and Ram make money. Chrysler and Dodge lose money.
While the V8 cars made some money there was no new product developed that meets the coming emissions snd CAFE rules. While GM invested in small CUV models that make money These brands realky have no product in development and the Euro based company realky has little interest in American car markets.
You can keep the V8 for some trucks and high end Cars but to meet the regulations 3 and 4 cylinders are going to be whst we get.
GM will lose its V6 soon as only the Blazer and Cadillac use it.
Vehicles are expensive and if fuel mileage penalties are applied it will just get more expensive.
Stellantis bet big on EV models and are stuck with no real ice models. GM played both sides and still invested in Ice while doing EV.
Really? Stellantis bet big on EVs while GM played both sides? I don’t see that. Seems to me GM was the one that was all-in or had an “everybody in” mentality on EVs and has had to scale back those plans, delay launches, and walk back their bold EV predictions numerous times.
And gm’s future product suffers because of it while those that made the “all electric future” decisions are collecting $25 million salaries. Boy, it would be nice to have a job like that. In most jobs, if you are costing your company revenue, you would be out.
GM invested in EV but still offer the profitable ICE models at the same time.
This is why you have two Blazers, two Equinox, two Silverado Ice and EV.
This is why GM is still working on a New V8 and has developed two new Gemini V8 engines for Corvette.
Don’t be fooled by the marketing as GM has to sell the EV models while the ICE sell themselves.
The real issue is this. Even if Trump is elected he can pull the EV mandates but in 4 more years someone else can put them in.
Also the CARB regulated states can overrule the EPA and keep mandates on EV and they make up 44% of the market. GM is walking a tight line to be ready for either path. They will keep ICE as long as they can make money on it but continue the EV should they be forced to sell them.
If you look around as actions speak louder than words. GM actions speak clearly.
I see Chrysler going down first. They really have nothing. Dodge will get the I six car but they lack where the money is in small SUV and CUV models. Their time may also be coming.
Ram makes money this is why they are not Dodge. Jeep was making money but they took their eye off quality. They also need to focus on Wrangler models not the CUV Fiat based models.
Maserati will be sold off. Vauxhaul will be folded into Opel.
This is a large investment company with no sentimental feelings for American brands.
This mess started under Daimler as they did not invest in the models that made all the money today.
Yes the performance cars did well but time ran out and they again did not invest. Even as well as they did they were still not making the money the small CUV models made,
Times are tough and companies need to close ranks with their spending.
There are only three companies in decent shape. Toyota, VW and GM. Even times will be tough on them but they are in a better place to deal with the future.
Ford is in trouble. Stock is way low and they would have been bought out had not the Ford families control. They will replace Farly and the new guy will have yo pay off debts, One out standing energy department loan.
They also have quality issues as they cut many engineers to save money.
The also face lower income due to the move to aluminum on the trucks. It added costs and has cut into profits. GM trucks are printing money for them.
I see more mergers and partnerships to deal with EV. GM will do well selling and licensing tech to others. They will likely do what they have fone with Honda too.
The future will see more changes in the next 11 years than the last 100 years.
He literally said it the work is not done in America anymore it’s done in Europe now. He’s not here to perform some miracle. He’s here for one reason only to kill this American car manufacturer. That’s it.
Stellantis, dumb name
Tavares, even dumber CEO
In Europe over the last five years, Stellantis has gone from selling 4.1M units down to 2.7M units (cy 2023). Share has declined from 21% to 15%.
In NA they’ve gone from selling 2.5M units/yr down to 1.8M units. Their US share alone has dropped from 12.5% to 8.5% (cy 2023). And it’s going to decline a lot more for 2024. And now Tavares has said he’s going to straightened out NA by bringing in his cronies from Europe who’ve done such a swell job losing share over there.
Tavares is a walking disaster area. His answer for everything is to cut costs, raise prices to maintain margins then wonder why sales are tanking. And for that he got a 56% pay raise to $40M last year.
Arrogance personified.
1st get rid of Fiat in USA/Can since the yearly sales is < 1,000. No 1 will buy such a small hatch with asymmetrical doors at a whooping $32K price tag for just 150 mile range.
Chrysler still has hope. Launch a redesigned
Pacifica with plugless and plugin hybrids as 8 seater
similarly another model called
Atlanica with plugless and plugin hybrids as 6 seater
With 2 models, it can just chug along for a while.
Ok … will be those to disagree, but here it is. For starters there are way too many variants of vehicles, to use just one the Jeep Wrangler … too many variants … build two models, one base with a few options, and a high line model with a few extra options, this will end the variety of choices, yes. But it will bring down cost greatly. I drove Oldsmobile Cutlass Serria Wagons for years when Olds was going w/GM. You had a base model with a few bells an whistles, and a deluxe model that came standard with all the options … cost variant … about $2,000, my last new Olds (1996) retained for about $24K, a midsized car. We switched to Olds after Chrysler dropped the Reliant Wagons. This system also streamlines the special order process, less variants, the faster special orders get delivered.
Stellantis … here’s your marching orders. Understand everyone dosen’t need a high performance Dodge Charger or a base model that sells for upwards of $40K to $50K. We don’t need another SUV Jeep Wrangler that has a base price close to $43K w/options that only include a hard top and auto/trans. We don’t need more 4 door Ram trucks that the base model scares the hell outta $42K as well, let alone a $50K to $80K price tag.
Stellanris … you already own the means to bring back the K-Cars, give’em a chance, Iacocca did and saved the company,bring back the Plymouth Reliant and Dodge Aries in all three variants, 2-door, 4-door, an oh my God the humble station wagon, an the Plymouth/Dodge Rampage 2 door K-Car (El Camino) type pickup to sell. Back in ’82 a high line Plymouth wagon retails for about $13K … I know I owned 4 of them as that is what we used for pickup an deliver for our Lawn Mower Shop/Hardware Store. An while you’re at it, start selling that little Dddge Ram 700 that is sold in Mexico. Politics, yeah that bad word brings too many restrictions to auto manufacturing … this is one BIG REASON GM won’t bring that little an very successful Montana and S-10 trucks into the US market. You bring the vehicles … We The People … we will vote out the DC Idiots whose causing you all the problems.