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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.

Junkyard Gem: 2012 Fiat 500 Sport

Fiat left the United States after selling its last Stradas, 124 Sport Spiders and X1/9s as 1982 models, taking Lancia with it. Malcolm Bricklin continued importing the 124 Sport Spider and X1/9 (with Pininfarina and Bertone badging) for a few more years, but it just wasn't the same for American fans of the venerable Italian manufacturer. Fast-forward to Chrysler's Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009 and Fiat's investment in the company and it wasn't long before the announcement came that Fiat was returning to our shores. The first Fabbrica Italiana Automobil di Torino product to hit our streets as part of that deal was the 500, which debuted as a 2012 model. That's serious automotive history, which is what this series is all about, so I have documented this first-year 500 in a Denver car graveyard. I've written about many, many discarded Fiats over the years, including some respectably old cars, but the Nuova Cinquecento never sold very well here, and the surviving examples tend to be too valuable to end up in a Ewe Pullet. That car was built from 1957 through 1975 and was a huge success in Europe, with nearly 4 million units sold, and its name reminded Europeans of its just-as-beloved 500 Topolino predecessor. A retro-styled modern 500 made a great deal of sense, and Polish-built 500s hit European showrooms beginning in 2007. While the 500 name didn't conjure up happy childhood memories with American car shoppers, so what? The car looked adorable and those old enough to have unpleasant memories of the temperamental Fiats of the 1970s probably weren't going to care what old Fiat model it looked like. I am old enough to remember those 1970s Fiats (my parents bought a pair of new Fiat 128s when I was in the first grade), but I was excited about Fiat's return in 2011 and reviewed a 500 Sport in April of that year. It wasn't a great fit with the tastes of mainstream American vehicle shoppers, sadly, and it got the axe here after 2019. A new electron-fueled 500e should be available any minute now, so the American Fiat 500 story is nowhere near finished. This car has the Sport trim level, so its MSRP was $17,500 (about $23,959 in 2024 dollars). It has the optional six-speed automatic transmission, which added $1,000 to the price ($1,369 after inflation). The engine is a 1.4-liter MultiAir straight-four rated at 101 horsepower and 98 pound-feet. Members of this engine family have powered everything from the Alfa Romeo Giulietta to the Jeep Renegade.

2024 Fiat 500e First Drive Review: Reborn EV packs style, plays music out its bumper

MIAMI – It's been hard times for Fiat fans. The brand discontinued its 500 model line after 2019, leaving only the four-door crossover-ized 500X on sale, and while it planned to introduce the replacement for its 500e electric city car around that time, a little pandemic threw a wrench in the works. Now, in 2024, the folks from Turin are finally ready to let Americans taste the Dolce Vita offered by that new 500e. Has the wait been worth it? I went to Miami to find out. As you'd expect, the 2024 Fiat 500e is once again a fully electric city car. Unlike its predecessor (2013-2019), this 500e feels like a more complete EV package than a "compliance car" meant to satisfy regulations in states like California. The "New Fiat 500" has been on sale in Europe since 2020, so while this is a new model for the United States, it's by now a well-established platform. Like the old 500e, the 2024 500e features a front-wheel-drive layout, with a permanent magnet motor providing a whopping 117 horsepower and 162 pound-feet of torque. That motor is paired with a 42-kilowatt-hour battery (around 38 of which is usable, per Fiat engineers) for an EPA-estimated range of 141 with all-season tires. That doesn't sound like a lot – and it isn't – but this isn't a vehicle designed for long road trips or super-commuters. Fiat claims a 0-60 time of 8.5 seconds and a top speed of 94 mph, but I suspect that driving at that speed would be trouser-browningly sketchy. Not that the 500e feels unstable around town (Fiat didn't include any highway driving during my brief stint with the car). It offers the kind of quick, accurate steering and subcompact agility that made the original 500e so much more fun to drive than it needed to be. The steering is light but not overly so and offers a very tight turning circle of just 31.5 feet, making the "Oh wait, there's a parking spot! Get it!" maneuver much easier than it would be in a larger vehicle. While the steering is awesome, the 500e's ride isn't as pleasant. It's not unladen-full-size-truck brutal by any means, but calling it busy over broken city streets feels like a charitable way of putting it. This isn't an expensive car with sophisticated suspension, and, again, given its intended use case, I wouldn't count the ride as a huge point against it. One of the biggest leaps forward from the old 500e to this new version is the addition of DC fast charging capability.