While the world looks East, to the Beijing International Auto Show – China is now the epicenter of the global market and the most aggressive brands come from China, from Byd downwards – Stellantis is preparing to invest 13 billion dollars in the West, in the United States (some observers claim it is doing so to curry favor with the fickle Donald Trump) but above all is fine-tuning the industrial plan that in a few weeks, precisely from the US, it will present to investors. It will be the first signed by Antonio Filosa and, given the premises seen so far, it should represent a clear break from the era of Carlos Tavares.
WHAT THE RUMORS SAY
The need to prioritize the US with that flood of money and the financial crisis of recent times make the blanket particularly short. The problem, however, is that Stellantis has an incredible number of brands in its portfolio, namely 14. According to some analysts, that might even be too many. For this reason, according to Reuters, the Italo-French Group chaired by John Elkann and led by Antonio Filosa is moving towards defining two championships. In football terms, we would call them Serie A and Serie B.
According to sources heard by Reuters, investments will focus on Jeep, Ram, Peugeot, and Fiat, which are not only the best-performing brands but also correspond to precise geographical choices: two American and two European. And the two Europeans are respectively one French and one Italian, because Stellantis was born from the merger between FCA and PSA. This should also ensure a certain balance in relations with politics, especially in the Old Continent.
ITALY AND FRANCE ON EDGE
Also because precisely in the Old Continent the moves of the car manufacturer are viewed with suspicion: in France there is considerable discontent around the decision to reduce the Poissy plant to a mere hub for green recovery of materials to be refurbished (a choice that nevertheless saved the factory, which according to some local newspapers was already considered doomed) while in Italy the decisions to produce more and more Fiat beyond the Mediterranean, in North Africa, in Algerian and Moroccan plants are being followed, which in some ways now seem to even compete with those in Eastern Europe.
AND THE “SERIE B” BRANDS?
The Stellantis choice reported in these hours by Reuters would allow, at least for the moment, to dismiss other rumors related to the sale of less successful brands, such as the Italian brands Lancia and Alfa Romeo, the French DS, or the German Opel. Citroën, Opel, and the others would thus move towards forced regionalization that should also involve a smaller number of models. And gradually disappear from the Group’s international offering.
The rumors reported by the news agency say nothing about Maserati, which is probably today the most crisis-ridden stable among the Italo-French Group’s brands (and in fact, in the past, its possible sale, perhaps to the Chinese, has been repeatedly speculated by the press) but also the one least suited, given the type of market, to similar discussions that would want to confine it to precise geographical enclosures.
