While it may have one of the most diverse brand portfolios in the industry, struggling Stellantis has a limited war chest to support them. So, going forward, new CEO Antonio Filosa plans to focus investments on just four of those marques. What happens to the other brands like Chrysler, Dodge, Lancia and Opel? Headlight.News has more.
Products like the Ram RHO have made the brand one of the strongest in the Stellantis portfolio.
On the plus side, Stellantis has one of the most diverse collections of brands in the entire auto industry. The downside is the money that it takes to support them all. And, after losing $26 billion last year, the automaker’s new chief executive has decided it’s time to focus spending on the most promising of those marques.
As part of a new strategic plan set to be revealed next month, CEO Antonio Filosa is expected to target four core brands, Jeep, Ram, Peugeot and Fiat, according to a report by Reuters.
That is already raising concerns that some of the more troubled divisions could be abandoned, including U.S.-based Chrysler and Italy’s Lancia, it appears such cuts aren’t in the offing – at least for now. While sources said the four will each see a “material increase” in spending, Stellantis isn’t set to abandon the rest of the portfolio. Brands like Dodge, Opel and Alfa Romeo will continue to add new products but will be dependent upon platforms and technologies for the four core marques.
Not enough money to go around
CEO Carlos Tavares acknowledged his own “arrogance” may have caused the company’s problems before resigning in December 2024.
At first glance, one might think Stellantis could afford to support all 14 of its automotive brands. It is, after all, the world’s fourth-largest automaker from a unit sales perspective. But, after a seemingly auspicious debut in 2021, the company formed from the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Groupe PSA has been struggling.
The company made a series of mistakes, especially in the critical U.S. market, former CEO Carlos Tavares admitting some were the result of his own “arrogance.” That led to his unexpected resignation in December 2024.
Even before he was promoted to fill that role six months later, Filosa made a series of moves to reverse the company’s problems. But it still wound up posting losses of $26 billion last year, much of that due to charges related to its EV program. Stellantis is expected to post another $2.68 billion for the first half of 2026, with first-quarter numbers to be announced on April 30.
The bottom line? Stellantis hasn’t had the war chest funding that other manufacturers have had so they’ve had to make some hard decisions,” said Stephanie Brinley, principal auto analyst for S&P Global Mobility.
The winners
Jeep Wrangler Anvil 715 Concept kicks up sand ahead of the annual Easter Safari.
Even before it merged with France’s PSA, Fiat Chrysler’s former chief executive Sergio Marchionne was picking winners and losers. Notably, he anticipated the company’s biggest profit centers would be two brands focused on light trucks: Ram and Jeep. They remain the two primary revenue and profit centers for Stellantis and will make up half of the quarter of core brands under the new Stellantis strategy, according to the Reuters report.
Both Jeep and Ram generate the majority of their sales and revenues in North America and that’s expected to continue, according to sources who spoke to Headlight.News – though Jeep has had some success gaining traction in other parts of the world.
The other winners are based in Europe. Peugeot was PSA’s flagship brand and has gained significant traction under Tavares’s guidance before the merger. The decision to position Fiat as the other core brand might take some observers by surprise, especially in North America where, said Brinley, it has “failed to gain traction” since returning to the region in 2009 after a 26-year absence.
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The losers
Alfa Romeo was once seen as a core brand but will now be part of the Stellantis second string.
Indeed, there has been ongoing speculation that Stellantis might simply choose to abandon the Fiat brand. But, noted Brinley, while week in the U.S. and Canada, it’s actually a strong brand in Latin America and some other regions, including its home Italian market.
Word of the new Stellantis brand strategy has raised far more questions than the company is so far ready to answer. That includes speculation about the future of other weak brands, such as Lancia. Today, it has virtually no presence outside of Italy.
Then there’s the once-vaunted Chrysler which has long struggled to reestablish a presence in any market, including the U.S. Today, it has but a single product in its portfolio, the Pacifica minivan. Chrysler was supposed to get additional offerings, signaled by the Airflow and other concept vehicles. But they were based on the expectation of major growth in the EV market. With Stellantis now pulling back on its electrification plans they’ve been scrapped and it’s unclear what alternatives might be in the works – if anything.
How it will work
Fiat may not connect with U.S. buyers but it remains a critical brand for Stellantis in Latin America and other foreign markets.
The strategy Stellantis is working up isn’t entirely unique. Long gone are the days when automakers allow all brands to operate independently.
Economies of scale require manufacturers to share everything from steering wheels to powertrains across a variety of brands and individual product lines. That’s the case with the various platforms that underpin the Stellantis line-up, such as the STLA Large “architecture” used in models like the Ram 1500 and various Jeep SUVs. The challenge will be to make such platforms flexible enough to also service a Chrysler minivan and a Maserati SUV, however.
Meanwhile, products sold in one market through one brand might be sold elsewhere under a different brand and carry an alternative nameplate. The challenge will be to tweak such products just enough to maintain the look and feel of the different brands. It didn’t pull that off when it took a small Alfa Romeo crossover and tried rebadging it as the Dodge Hornet, resulting in poor sales.
No plans to “sunset” brands
The 2027 Chrysler Pacifica Pinnacle.
For now, insiders told Reuters, Stellantis doesn’t intend to shrink its brand portfolio. Brinley believes that makes senses because “dropping brands… would make them a smaller company. Yhe plan is to become a bigger company,” albeit one emphasizing core brands.
It’s not the first time this approach has been taken by Stellantis or by both FCA and PSA before it. Under old Fiat-Chrysler chief Marchionne Ram and Jeep were already seen as essential. But before his unexpected death in 2018, Marchionne also bet heavily on Alfa Romeo. That failed to pay off and the sporty Italian brand will be part of the Stellantis second tier going forward.
Whether the reported approach holds is uncertain – indeed, we could find a very different plan in place by the time the strategy is officially announced next month, sources indicated. And Stellantis certainly will have to see if revisions will need be made.
“At some point Stellantis may have to sunset some brands,” Larry Dominique, a consultant and former head of the Alfa Romeo brand in North America, told Reuters. “But they’re going to have to make that decision based on the forward performance of the core brands.”
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