Stellantis continues to navigate through troubled ties as the company admits its profits fell 70% during 2024 and says it won’t be profitable again until 2025.
Stellantis confirmed in a recent earnings report that its profits sunk by 70% in 2024.
It has been a rough few years for Stellantis with the massive corporate conglomerate navigating through troubled waters on multiple fronts due to problems that have rapidly emerged. Some of these were self-inflicted by the company and as a result, Stellantis is still navigating through the fallout including the sudden resignation of its former CEO Carlos Tavares.
With all of this chaos unfolding, it’s no surprise that profits took a hit but the company revealed in a recent earnings report that it’s at a far greater magnitude than many realized with the firm confirming earnings went down by 70% during 2024 which is causing many alarm bells to ring both in Stellantis and the industry as whole.
How did Stellantis get here?
Part of the reason why profits cratered was because of self-inflicted wounds created by Stellantis including a botched rollout of trim levels for certain vehicles.
To understand how Stellantis reached this dubious milestone, one has to look into how the company got to this point. A prominent reason was because of self-inflicted wounds including a botched inventory strategy that saw brands like Ram, Jeep, and Dodge putting a strong focus on higher-priced models with the company producing fewer models aimed at mainstream buyers. This scared off customers and when you combine that with Ram and Dodge getting into new and revamped models that moved away from the older inventory, it created a Pandora’s Box of trouble. In addition to that, Dodge also learned the hard way how important pricing was when it launched the Dodge Hornet CUV with the model’s launch being stunted by high pricing. This forced angry dealerships to heavily discount the CUV to get them off their lots.
The company has since moved to correct some of these woes with Dodge fast-tracking the launch of the ICE-powered Dodge Charger after the first wave of EV models were met with lukewarm fanfare from consumers. Meanwhile, Ram and Jeep also shuffled their model plans with the two brands placing a renewed emphasis on correcting course with these efforts accelerating after the resignation of Carlos Tavares. However, the staggering loss of profit is massive when you translate all of this into cash with the company reporting a net profit of $5.5 billion with expenses and other items ultimately causing them to lose $133 million which is a massive loss.
More Stellantis Stories
- CEO Tavares’s Resignation Could Leave Struggling Stellantis Rudderless
- The Shake-Up Accelerates at Stellantis as Kuniskis Returns, More Moves in the Works
- Stellantis Shuffles the Deck Again While CEO Search Continues
Stellantis still has a long road ahead
The company is making some moves to change including giving brand CEOs more control but there’s a long way to go in terms of recovering profitability.
The company’s financial report says the company will eventually return to profitability but it will be a long and painful wait with the report saying that it won’t be until the second half of 2025. In the meantime, the company forecasts it will be operating on an adjusted margin only in the lower single digits and that’s before you factor in things beyond the company’s control including volatile marketing conditions, tariffs, and potential shifts in policy from Washington on things like EV tax credits and other incentives.
Stellantis Chairman John Elkann has made sweeping changes of his own including giving brand CEOs more power and control over what goes on in their respective brands while also making other changes to right the ship at the company.
“While 2024 was a year of stark contrasts for the company, with results falling short of our potential, we achieved important strategic milestones,” Elkann said in a statement. Notably, we began the rollout of new multi-energy platforms and products, which continues in 2025, started production of EV batteries through our JVs, and launched the Leapmotor International partnership. Stellantis’ dedicated and talented people are driving forward with energy and determination, engaging with key stakeholders and moving decision-making closer to our customers. We are firmly focused on gaining market share and improving financial performance as 2025 progresses.”
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