Automotive giant faces mounting challenges

Dealers don’t hold back in response to plummeting sales across several major brands.

Plummeting sales have triggered civil war inside the car company responsible for some of the largest brands in the US, Italy and France.

Stellantis, the parent company to brands such as Jeep, Chrysler, RAM, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Peugeot and Citroen, faces revolt from its largest dealer group.

Jeep sales are sliding at home and abroad.

A letter published by the Stellantis National Dealer Council in the US said that “disaster has arrived” for the car maker, accusing it of presiding over the “rapid degradation of our iconic American brands”.

Falling sales, production issues, sweeping recalls and deep discounts have taken their toll on dealers.

The letter, signed by dealer council chairman Kevin Farris, took aim at the “almost 40 million dollars” earned by Stellantis chief executive Carlos Tavares in 2023, following what it described as “reckless short-term decision making to secure record profits”.

Alfa Romeo is also struggling for sales in Australia.

In response, Stellantis issued a statement defending its leadership and strategy, taking “absolute exception” to the letter.

The company pointed to a 21 per cent increase in sales in August 2024, and an improvement in market share by 0.7 percentage points.

Stellantis also noted a 10 per cent reduction in dealer inventory, and criticised dealers for airing dirty laundry.

“We meet and talk monthly, have weekly calls and personal conversations at the highest level. This is where such dialogue should take place,” Stellantis said in its statement.

The company rejected the public criticism as counter-productive and mentioned it is already seeing results from an action plan developed in collaboration with dealers.

The brand’s decision to kill popular V8-powered versions of the RAM 1500, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dodge Charger and Dodge Challenger was alluded to in the dealer letter that implored Stellantis to build cars “people want to buy and can afford”.

Chrysler has stopped selling cars in Australia.

Stellantis is faring little better in Australia.

All of its brands have recorded a drop in sales this year, despite the market being up as a whole.

It gets much worse if you compare their performance today to a decade ago.

Looking at January to August sales for the year to date, Jeep has plummeted from 19226 sales in 2014 to 1661 this year.

Fiat dropped from 4016 sales to 371 in that time, while Alfa slipped from 1956 to 448, and Peugeot moved from 2894 to 1497 sales.

And that’s before you consider that Stellantis brands Chrysler and Citroen have altogether stopped selling new cars in Australia.

Or that the most successful of its brands, RAM Trucks Australia, is operated by third party importer ATECO, not Stellantis itself.

The auto giant made international headlines last month when the company publicly refuted reports that it planned to sell Maserati to turn its fortunes around, declaring that “Stellantis has no intention of selling the Trident brand”.

The LeapMotor C10 is on its way to Australia. Picture: Supplied

Stellantis’ next move in Australia is to launch a Chinese EV brand in LeapMotor, which aims to capitalise on the momentum earned by affordable brands such as BYD and MG of late.

The LeapMotor C10 electric SUV will enter an increasingly crowded market contested by several new brands including Smart, XPeng, Zeekr and Geely.