- Stellantis’s profit halved in the first half of 2024, prompting drastic measures.
- CEO Carlos Tavares warned of potential brand shutdowns if profitability isn’t achieved.
- The move reflects industry trends, similar to past brand eliminations by GM and Ford.
Nobody is safe. That’s the message Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares sent to his brand bosses after delivering shockingly bad financial figures for the first six months of 2024 that showed the automaker’s profit had halved.
“If they don’t make money, we’ll shut them down,” Carlos Tavares told journalists about Stellantis nameplates that fail to pull their weight. “We cannot afford to have brands that do not make money.”
Related: Stellantis Profits Crash In 2024, Some Brands Could Be Axed, CEO Warns
Stellantis isn’t just any car company. It’s a colossal conglomerate formed from the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the PSA Group. That means Stellantis is the parent of 14 brands, including household names like Jeep, Dodge, Ram, Chrysler, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, and Citroën.
Several of those brands have been around for more than 100 years, and with such a diverse portfolio, some are bound to be more successful than others. Could Tavares really wield the knife, putting a storied name like Maserati out of business?
You bet he could, and you only need look at the no-room-for-sentiment decisions his opposite numbers at GM and Ford took not too long ago to see there’s a precedent here. Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Saturn all took a bullet to the cylinder head in recent years and over at the Blue Oval, Mercury was also sent to the brand junkyard.
Though much of the blame for Stellantis’ terrible H1 showing is down to what was happening in the US, the bloodletting is most likely to take place in Europe.
Maserati, Lancia and DS all look like low-hanging fruit, and Alfa Romeo would have been on that list too, a few years back. But these days it’s posting record sales and has a portfolio of relevant models including crossovers, SUVs, EVs and hybrids either already on sale or coming through that should help continue that growth.
And what about Chrysler? Once a giant of the American auto industry, it’s been reduced to selling one model, an ancient minivan. Would America care, or even notice, if it disappeared altogether?
Which Stellantis brand do you think should be closed to help streamline the company and boost its profitability? Or do you believe all the brands have potential and just need the right strategy to succeed? Take part in our poll to tell us which nameplate Tavares should axe, and drop a comment below to tell us why.