Stellantis announced that it has halted the shipment of vehicles solely powered by internal combustion engines (ICE) to 14 American states that adhere to the more stringent emissions regulations established by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
Customers there can still get internal combustion vehicles, but Stellantis will only send them to those states (which include California, New York, Pennsylvania, and others) if an order has been made. No longer will customers be able to pick them out of a dealer’s inventory.
Meanwhile, in the remaining states that will follow emissions rules set by the federal government, Stellantis will not ship electrified models to dealers unless a customer has already ordered it.
“The communication to our dealers simply acknowledges the reality that we may need to adjust vehicle allocations among the California and Federal states to ensure that Stellantis complies with different standards in the California states,” Stellantis said in a statement to Autonews.
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The decision is likely a reflection of the fact that Stellantis is not a member of the agreement that five automakers reached with CARB in 2020. For these automakers, the board will consider the average emissions of their nationwide fleet in assessing compliance with its rules. Because Stellantis did not initially move to join the agreement, its emissions are only measured by the vehicles it sells in states that have agreed to join the CARB emissions standards. However, the decision was still a surprise to some dealers.
“I think many of us expected when the CARB rules actually kick in in 2026 in a meaningful way that we’d have some allocation challenges,” said Brian Maas, president of the California New Car Dealers Association. “The fact that it’s happening [with Stellantis] in the middle of 2023 is a bit of a surprise.”
That means a lot of Jeep 4xe models for dealers in Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Washington D.C. Fortunately, that hasn’t proven to be too difficult.
“We’ve learned how to sell these, and they’re not that difficult to sell,” said David Kelleher, who works at a dealership in Pennsylvania. “That being said, I still have customers that want gas.”
What that will mean for dealers outside of these states once fully electric vehicles like the Ram 1500 Revolution or the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT is not yet clear. But Stellantis says that it will continue to work with its network.
“We will continue to support our dealer network as they work to meet the needs of our consumers during this time, and we will continue to seek a level playing field for our company and our dealers,” Stellantis said. “The ultimate solution rests with a program that allows compliance based on sales in all 50 states.”
