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Stellantis ready to kill brands and fix U.S. problems, CEO Tavares says

  MILAN — Stellantis is taking steps to fix weak margins and high inventory at its U.S. operations and will not hesitate to axe underperforming brands in its sprawling portfolio, its chief executive Carlos Tavares said on Thursday. The warning for lossmaking brands is a turnaround for Tavares, who has maintained since Stellantis was created in 2021 from the merger of Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler and France's PSA that all of its 14 brands including Maserati, Fiat, Peugeot and Jeep have a future. "If they don't make money, we'll shut them down," Carlos Tavares told reporters after the world's No. 4 automaker delivered worse-than-expected first-half results, sending its shares down as much as 10%. "We cannot afford to have brands that do not make money." The automaker now also considers China's Leapmotor as its 15th brand, after it agreed to a broad cooperation with the group. Stellantis does not release figures for individual brands, except for Maserati which reported an 82 million euro adjusted operating loss in the first half. Some analysts say Maserati could possibly be a target for a sale by Stellantis, while other brands such as Lancia or DS might be at risk of being scrapped given their marginal contribution to the group's overall sales. Stellantis' Milan-listed shares were down as much as 12.5% on Thursday, hitting their lowest since August 2023. That brings the loss for the year so far to 22%, making them the worst performer among the major European automakers. Few automotive brands have been killed off since General Motors ditched the unprofitable Saturn and Pontiac during a U.S. government-led bankruptcy in the global financial crisis in 2008. Tavares is under pressure to revive flagging margins and sales and cut inventory in the United States as Stellantis bets on the launch of 20 new models this year which it hopes will boost profitability. Recent poor results from global carmakers have heightened worries about a weakening outlook for sales across major markets such as the U.S., whilst they also juggle an expensive transition to electric vehicles and growing competition from cheaper Chinese rivals. Japan's Nissan Motor saw first-quarter profit almost completely wiped out on Thursday and slashed its annual outlook, as deep discounting in the United States shredded its margins. Tavares said he would be working through the summer with his U.S. team on how to improve performance and cut inventory.

Dodge shows can-do attitude with grand Can'avan sculpture

There are lots of ways to celebrate an important birthday, and all of them are well deserved. You can throw a big party, buy yourself something nice, or - if you're the altruistic type - do something for others in need. The latter is how Chrysler has opted to mark the 30th anniversary of its Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country.
Together with hunger-advocacy organization Canstruction, the Chrysler Foundation has built a full-scale replica of the Grand Caravan out of 30,000 food cans in the square at the corner of Yonge and Dundas in Toronto, a ways down the highway from where the real vans are built in Windsor. The sculpture was built over the course of 10 hours by 30 volunteers and was displayed earlier this week.
Now the installation is being taken down, and the cans of food are being donated to the Daily Bread Food Bank, which will assemble them into 2,000 food baskets to be distributed to those in need through its network of 200 food banks across the Canadian metropolis. Check out a neat time-lapse video of the build and the press release below.

Chrysler recalling over 200k vehicles across its brands

With more than 200,000 units across six separate recalls and almost all of its brands, it appears that Chrysler has officially jumped headfirst into the recall pool this month. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued three official recalls for the automaker, and The Detroit News is reporting that the automaker itself has announced three more.
The biggest of the recalls applies to about 120,000 Dodge Charger, Dodge Challenger and Chrysler 300 models for 2011 and 2012 due to faulty wiring harnesses for the seat-mounted side airbags, which could lead to these airbags not deploying in the event of a crash. A little more than 60,000 two-wheel-drive versions of the 2007-2008 Dodge Nitro and 2008 Jeep Liberty SUVs are being recalled due to a heat shield that could cause the driveshaft to break, which if that isn't bad on its own, could then hit underneath where the airbag sensor is mounted, causing the airbags to deploy. Wrapping up NHTSA's recall notices, about 20,000 Jeep Patriot and Jeep Compass models for 2012 are also being recalled due to a problem with the fuel tank transfer tube that could lead to the vehicle stalling. The LX car recall campaign is going into effect this month, while the other two will start next month - all three notices are posted below.
In addition to the official NHTSA recalls, The Detroit News is also reporting that Chrysler is recalling more than 16,000 Ram trucks and a small number of Dodge Dart sedans. Around 6,500 2013 Ram 1500 trucks will be recalled due to an improper adjustment of the parking brake cable from the factory, while 7,000 Cummins-powered 2013 Ram Heavy Duty trucks are being recalled due to an engine cover that does not have as much heat resistance as it is supposed to. Finally, a total of 46 Dodge Dart sedans are being recalled due to a problem with the brake calipers and/or parking brake.