By The New York Times (Europe) | Created at 2024-09-29 09:08:02 | Updated at 2024-09-30 05:30:24
20 hours ago
Business|Why Stellantis, Owner of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram, Is Struggling
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/29/business/stellantis-jeep-dodge-strike.html
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The automaker, created by a 2021 merger, is dealing with labor unrest, slumping sales and a revolt from its dealers.
Sept. 29, 2024, 5:02 a.m. ET
Stellantis, an automotive colossus that owns more than a dozen brands including Chrysler, Fiat, Jeep, Peugeot and Ram, is facing challenges at seemingly every turn.
The company’s sales and profit have been plummeting. Dealers stuck with parking lots filled with unsold cars are publicly criticizing Stellantis and its chief executive in unusually harsh terms. Stellantis’s stock price has fallen almost 50 percent from its high point in March. And the union that represents its U.S. factory workers is threatening to go on strike at several plants.
United Automobile Workers locals are expected to vote in the coming days to authorize strikes against several Stellantis factories, protesting what they say are broken promises by the automaker.
The problems are raising questions about the future of Carlos Tavares, the Stellantis chief executive, who races cars in his spare time. After taking the reins at the French carmaker PSA in 2014, he acquired a series of rivals to build a company that last year sold more cars than General Motors did.
Last week, Stellantis said it was evaluating who should lead the company when Mr. Tavares’s contract expires in early 2026. Mr. Tavares could remain chief executive, Stellantis said, but the statement was hardly a vote of confidence.
In 2021, PSA merged with Fiat Chrysler, and the combined company adopted the name Stellantis. While the company is based in Amsterdam, its U.S. operations accounted for more than half of Stellantis’s profit in the first six months of 2024, meaning that problems here reverberate across the Atlantic. And the problems are deep, analyst say.
