Big, but no Toyota…
How Stellantis’s sales break down
Every brand suffered sales drops in 2020 due to the pandemic, but the data shows how crucial Jeep, Fiat and Peugeot are. Bottom five brands show Stellantis needs to make waves in the premium sector with fresh products.
segments to its partners. Fiat abandoned the B segment in 2018 and very few consumers miss it.’ Tavares, meanwhile, certainly seems keen to apply the Opel/Vauxhall strategy to make it a bigger success: ‘If we are able to do what we did with the Corsa with Fiat models, I believe we can make those business plans fly,’ he says.
Then there’s Jeep, headed up by Christian Meunier (right). The biggest-selling brand in both 2019 and 2020 out of all the Stellantis marques, Jeep is riding the SUV wave using its long and distinguished 4x4 heritage. More is to come: an electric Wrangler, a roll-out of plug-in models, a new Grand Cherokee targeting premium SUV buyers and the return of the ultra-luxe Grand Wagoneer name – all due within the next two years.
While Davide Grasso remains boss of Maserati, chairman Harald Wester is Stellantis’s head of engineering; the best position from which to sprinkle some handling magic on even the most mainstream new models in Stellantis’s future.
The bigger question is: will iconic Lancia survive? It currently sells only one model: the Ypsilon, a renosed
Fiat 500 in Italy. ‘It isn’t clear whether [Lancia] is worth keeping,’ says Munoz. ‘It would need more models, but does that kind of investment make sense when Stellants already has Alfa Romeo and DS?’
‘There’s a huge benefit to having a group at your bancdk, but every brand will have private territory’
Vincent Cobée, CEO of Citroën
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
‘There’s a massive benefit to having a huge group at your back that can deliver the right technology,’ Vincent Cobée, new boss of Citroën, tells CAR. That’s especially true in an era of transition to zero-emission propulsion; the VW Group, for example, is starting to see the return on its massive investment in the MEB platform and will soon deploy Premium Platform Electric, the equivalent for larger and sportier cars. For Stellantis, Fiat and Peugeot’s head-start in EVs and plug-ins makes for a handy resource pool. From a manufacturing perspective, the group’s shared resources can cover for some of its inefficient factories in the short term, while Tavares whips them into shape.
‘The most difficult part of a merger is the cultural and managerial sides,’ says Munoz. ‘In the case of Stellantis, the French and Italians are not very different at the end, so I don’t foresee problems in the Daimler-Chrysler partnership. The consumer benefits from better cars, probably at more competitive prices.’
Even the former Groupe PSA, with Tavares at the helm, was no stranger to using shared platforms. ‘We reduced costs because of economies of scale,’ Tavares told CAR back in 2019. ‘But a bigger company is only a better and more efficient company if you can manage your business better. It’s all about the execution.’
And, while the new super-group has big dreams of co-operation and synergising, there’s little appetite to start introducing brands into new markets or regions – Tavares has effectively put on ice the idea of introducing Peugeot to the North American market, for example. Munoz reckons it’s the right decision: ‘I don’t think these are the times for global expansion; they need to focus on strengthening the brands where they already have a good presence. It makes no sense to bring the Dodge name back to Europe, for example, when they can’t sell enough Jeeps in China.’
THE MARQUES CAN RETAIN THEIR IDENTITIES Strategy, in terms of Stellantis using the current powertrains and platforms available, might be fragmented in the short term. But as the new group gets to work developing next-generation replacement hardware, those in charge of its key brands are confident there will be plenty of room for differentiation.
‘Every brand in Stellantis has a certain amount of private territory when it comes to tech advances or customer benefits,’ says Cobée. ‘Progressive Hydraulic Cushions is one of those for Citroën, like the dual-density material we use for seats. These are our private jewels that are fenced off from other brands. DS, Peugeot, Opel and so on have their own territories. Plus, we all get brand-specific vehicle tuning which gives those detail results.’
Each brand will be grouped into common sectors. Alfa Romeo, DS and Lancia, for example, have been pooled together in a premium segment for Europe. DS boss Béatrice Foucher is using that to the brand’s advantage, within the group: ‘We will work with all of the brands in the [Stellantis] group on platforms and so forth, but we will also create some specific modules for premium brands.
‘I think that having a premium pool will help us and will be to the benefit of all of us, to help us develop more premium technology. Being three is better than being the only one.’
The same logic can be applied throughout the group. Of course, conglomerates can be bloated and slow-moving, and any mistakes they make can be magnified by their scale. But pooling resources makes more sense than ever as the industry races towards electrification, and the way Tavares turned Vauxhall/Opel around suggests Stellantis has the right man at the controls.