trade war troubles not only challenge facing stellantis, analysts warn
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one of the gates at the sprawling stellantis chrysler windsor assembly plant is shown on august 30, 2024.
dan janisse
/
windsor star
while a variety of u.s. tariffs have been whittling away the bottom line of the detroit three automakers, industry analysts emphasize the scale of stellantis’s $3.7-billion reported loss in the first half of the year points to problems beyond the trade war that the company is facing.
“stellantis has a lot more brand issues, identity issues, administrative issues,” said trillium network of advanced manufacturing managing director brendan sweeney.
“they have a lot more stuff to sort through than ford or general motors these days.
“they’ve got a new ceo (antonio filosa). he really hasn’t had a chance, nor would anyone expect, that he’d change this part-frankenstein, part-behemoth of a company in two or three months.
“he needs some time with it.”
with filosa choosing to retain personal responsibility for the north american market and to base himself in the u.s. rather than closer to stellantis’s headquarters in the netherlands, the new ceo is making a statement about where the company’s most pressing issues lie.
north america accounted for 42 per cent of stellantis’s revenue in 2024, but u.s. sales were down 10 per cent in the second quarter after declining 12 per cent in the first quarter of 2025.
“when i look at the different brands that stellantis has on their roster, there’s really not much of a common thread throughout it,” sweeney told the star.
“it reminds me of pre-recession (2008) general motors where you had cadillac, pontiac, buick and oldsmobile. it was, wait, which one does what again? are they all doing kind of the same thing.”
sweeney said the company needs to figure out what individual brands do better than others. he noted that, currently, stellantis’s most distinctive brands are jeep and the chrysler minivan.
“they are a company that is kind of always in transition, maybe even they’re more in transition these past few months,” sweeney said. “then you have a north american and global industry that is being turned upside down.
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“they’re over-exposed in mexico for donald trump’s liking.
“they’ve bet on some vehicles that are not hot sellers these days. they’re kind of the third-best pickup truck maker in north america.
“it’s hard to say this is stellantis’s niche, where they play. they kind of play everywhere but nowhere.
“that makes it tough for them.”
in the last 18 months of former ceo carlos tavares’s tenure, stellantis saw a steady stream of executive resignations from the senior leadership team in north america, prompting concern from unions and dealers the company was becoming too eurocentric.
filosa has reversed that flow and many of the experienced executives who resigned have been lured back with greater responsibilities in helping rebuild stellantis’s market share.
north american dealers who were angered as they saw popular products and engines — most notably the hemi v-8 — being pushed aside in the company’s rush towards electric vehicles and are now lauding the return of those products.
“tavares leading the company, he probably was looking at the old psa (peugeot) group because that’s where he came from,” said autoforecast solutions vice-president of global vehicle forecasting sam fiorani. “his allegiance to europe was expected.
“combining psa and fca, you subtly needed to shift the focal point of the company to north america rather than to eu (european union countries). he had no experience in north america.
“by having former executives come back, it gives credence to the strengthening of the company and belief that it was headed in the wrong direction before.”
while that original direction was aligned with toughening u.s. emission standards and ev mandates, the trump administration has eased standards and eliminated mandates. that has left stellantis with a short-term product misalignment with the u.s. market, but it has the flexibility to revive popular money-making internal combustion-powered vehicles and engine programs.
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the announcement earlier this year that the company was going to begin offering the hemi v-8 in ram 1500 pickup by summer’s end saw over 10,000 pre-orders placed for the vehicle in 24 hours.
“the landscape changed for everyone on january 20 (trump’s inauguration),” fiorani said. “they’ve taken on a lot of cost to push the company in the right direction for the market — adapting evs for ice use and adding hybrids.
“its cost them a lot, but it should make for a positive 2026 and beyond.”
part of that change of direction is the launch of the dodge charger with a gas-powered 3.0-litre, twin-turbo hurricane inline-6 engine. fiorani said production is ramping up at the windsor assembly plant with greater volume expected in september.
the charger sixpack will be available in the standard output of 420 horsepower and the high output of 550 horsepower.
it’s expected to greatly improve dodge’s sales of the vehicle, which launched as an electric vehicle only but has sold less than 5,000 units in the first half of 2025.
the company is also looking at whether it can squeeze the hemi v-8 into the new-generation charger that uses the stla large platform.
“as long as the engine bay is wide enough to accept it,” said fiorani on the potential return of that engine in the charger.
“it’s a longitudinal engine and it’s the same transmission for the hurricane and the hemi. they’re just making sure it fits, is wide enough and clears everything.”
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