Will all of the brands housed under the Stellantis umbrella be around by the turn of decade?
When the PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler merged to form Stellantis at the beginning of 2021, then CEO Carlos Tavares gave its troubled brands 10 years to turn themselves around.
Mr Tavares quit at the end of 2024 after falling out with the board, and by the middle of 2025 Antonio Filosa was appointed to replace him.
A source has told Reuters Mr Filosa is currently considering the long-term viability of its company’s 14 brands (Alfa Romeo, Fiat/Abarth, Lancia, Maserati, Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Opel/Vauxhall, Jeep, Dodge, Ram, and Chrysler). It should be noted Vauxhall is British-exclusive rebadge of Opel, and Abarth only sells heated up Fiat models.
Mr Filosa’s first priority seems to be North America, though, where he has helped return the Hemi V8 to the Ram 1500 pickup truck range, ended development of Ram 1500 EV in favour of a range-extender model, reconstituted the SRT performance arm, and hinted at new vehicles for Chrysler.
He has also ended the North American arm’s premium pricing strategy, and has embraced fleet sales to keep factories ticking over. Both moves run counter to his predecessor’s focus on profit margins over volume.
It’s not clear when a decision on the automaker’s plethora of brands will be reached, but if Mr Filosa’s short term strategy proves to be successful, it could buy the automaker more time to decide.
Given the company’s US dealerships sell all four of the company’s North American-born brands (Ram, Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler), and largely avoid any overlap, they seem to be safe from the chop.
As we noted in our feature explaining the formation of Stellantis in 2021, the two brands most in jeopardy are likely to be DS and Lancia.
The former was created by Group PSA when it only had the mainstream Peugeot and Citroen brands, and wanted a luxury brand to steal some sales from BMW, Mercedes-Benz and the like.
Lancia is now being positioned as a fellow luxury brand despite the fact it has spent the past decade or more selling a solitary model in the form of the Ypsilon city hatch.
The most recent figures from European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) show that in the year up to October Lancia (and Chrysler) sold just 9837 cars, a fall of 68.3 per cent from 2024, while DS shifted 24,000 vehicles, a drop of 21.6 per cent from the year before.
Lancia’s sales are down, primarily, due to the new Ypsilon being significantly larger and more expensive than the retired 13-year old model it replaced.
Despite extensive investment from the former Fiat Chrysler, Alfa still hasn’t achieved its goal of becoming the Italian BMW. That said Alfa Romeo has shifted 47,699 units in Europe so far this year, up 38.6 per cent, thanks largely to the launch of the Junior SUV.
This is roughly on par with other minor players in the luxury segment, like Lexus (47,866) and Land Rover (44,535).
While DS and Lancia face the axe, there continues to be speculation about the future of Maserati, with frequent rumours about its potential sale. It’s unclear how many cars Maserati has sold in Europe so far this year, but the combined grouping of Dodge, Maserati and Ram has managed 3538 sales up to October, down 17.1 per cent.
Among its Stellantis Europe’s mainstream brands, Citroen and Fiat are pitched down market, with the latter focussing primarily on smaller models and the Latin American market, while Peugeot and Opel/Vauxhall have different geographical strengths.