Stellantis Plots $70 Billion Turnaround on Brand Reset

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]Solent is, which owns Chrysler, and all the brands under the Chrysler umbrella is moving away from Chrysler. It's kind of leaving it behind.

[00:00:07]Yeah. I mean, this has been a long running issue with this company of of, you know, uh, making this case years ago that, you know, scale above all else was going to win out and was going to be the sort of answer to, to this, uh, industry that was in need of consolidation.

[00:00:22]Uh, but they haven't actually, uh, sort of justify that, you know, sort of business case that they made. Uh, 14 brands is an awful lot of mouths to feed. Uh, and here in North America, they don't have quite as vast a portfolio there, a fair number of European brands that aren't, uh, in this market. Uh, but Chrysler for some time now has been down to a single, uh, model, a minivan.

[00:00:42]Uh, and that's just, you know, not sort of, uh, consistent with a brand that, uh, you know, a lot of Americans recognize, uh, but it's sort of reflective of this dilemma that they've had of, you know, where did they lay their bets? Uh, I think there's some disappointment here in this reaction to this, uh, you know, uh, uh, Investor Day that they're having, uh, that the company isn't making the sort of tough decisions that they probably needed to make years ago. Maybe put some of these brands, uh, out to pasture, considering how little they've invested.

[00:01:10]What is Stellantis EV strategy today, and how does that compare it against maybe some of its peers? In short.

[00:01:16]Uh, they were they were way behind everybody else.

[00:01:19]They were trying to catch up. Uh, and, you know, in retrospect, uh, they made, uh, some incredibly wayward bets at the worst moment, sort of at the very end of, of, uh, you know, this, uh, transition, uh, you know, that the US industry was, was attempting under the Biden administration.

[00:01:37]And in their defense, this has been just, uh, all over the place from one administration to the next where, uh, you know, Trump won.

[00:01:43]Uh, he was he was very, uh, sort of MTV drill, baby.

[00:01:47]Drill. Biden comes in.

[00:01:49]IRA was just this incredible, uh, sort of effort, uh, and actually something that got, you know, Europe, uh, very nervous about, you know, are all of these EV and battery investments going to go to North America at the expense of Europe. For a company like Stellantis.

[00:02:04]Uh, and yet, uh, you know, there wasn't a whole lot of progress by the time we had this change in administration and dramatic change in policy.

[00:02:12]Uh, that that caught, uh, companies like Stellantis and Ford in this position of having to take, you know, not just multi-billion dollar writedowns, but tens of billions of dollars in write downs or write offs.

[00:02:23]So in a way, being behind maybe helped it because, you know, they're right back to where they were and they don't actually need to have a big lineup of EVs. What kind of investments are they going to make then in the existing Chrysler brand?

[00:02:35]I mean, you mentioned the minivan. I mean, how many more versions of that minivan can you really focus on? They they are talking about, uh, bringing some crossovers to, to the Chrysler brand.

[00:02:45]Uh, but really sort of focusing on, um, some of their core, uh, divisions.

[00:02:50]I think here it's really a Jeep, uh, SUVs and Ram pickups, which makes a lot of sense. Americans, uh, even as, uh, gas prices are, uh, you know, like a headed up. We still love our, uh, you know, big pickups and SUVs. I do have some some questions about, you know, uh, whether or not it's so simple, uh, you know, bringing back, like, the Hemi engine, uh, or these, you know, diesel models, uh, you know, even if it is the case that we buy a heck of a lot more of those than EVs.

[00:03:19]Are we going to see some change in buyer patterns as a result of the fact that diesel in particular, it's really hitting consumers where it hurts in terms of their wallets? So where it is EV been just slow down the EV conversion in the U.S., is it still happening?

[00:03:36]Is it? Where are we with that?

[00:03:38]Yeah, I think it's going to be, uh, a case where it's a lot messier than we were expecting just a few years ago. Right.

[00:03:45]Uh, and we are seeing, uh, sort of indications that in the U.S market, uh, in part because maybe we overbuilt in, in terms of, uh, thinking that there was more demand than there actually was. Uh, you actually have some real sort of bargains in the market for cars that are just a few years old.

[00:04:02]Uh, that, you know, depreciated quite a bit.

[00:04:04]And consumers are interested in, uh, sort of, you know, uh, bargain hunting.

[00:04:09]Mhm. Does that sort of help with, uh, sort of shoring up residual values and help, uh, that business case a little bit maybe.

[00:04:17]Uh, but until and unless we have indications that, uh, you know, policy in Washington is going to be more consistent and, uh, there's going to be an emphasis on, on competing with, you know, China and a more head on and, uh, sustained way. I think if you're a manufacturer of laying bets for the future, you really have to hedge against this notion that, uh, Washington kind of keeps going back and forth in terms of, uh, are they into this or not? Very quickly.

[00:04:42]Do they have any hybrid vehicles? They do.

[00:04:45]And I think that's actually something that we're going to see across the industries. That's a sort of natural, uh, you know, bet to make that, uh, you know, consumers are maybe going to, to not, uh, go fully electric, but are going to want to save at the pump.