Antonio Filosa, head of Jeep, Ram, Dodge, Chrysler and the rest of Stellantis’ North American business, is reportedly a leading candidate to become the massive automaker’s next CEO, a crucial position that opened when Carlos Tavares departed in December following a string of decisions that fractured the automaker’s sales, finances and relationships with its unions, dealers and suppliers.
Filosa looks like a good choice. While working in South America, the Neapolitan engineer oversaw the launch of a plant in Brazil that made Jeep the country’s top-selling SUV brand.
Since coming to Detroit a year ago, he’s seen the havoc that bad management and production decisions wreaked on Jeep and Ram, Stellantis’ biggest moneymakers.
“The whole point is to sell more, right?” Filosa told the Free Press in January. “It’s a very complex business but it ends with just one thing, a customer that is happy to buy our cars. We need to find more of those,” he said.
Sounds simple, but the next CEO’s first and most difficult task will be to decide which of the automaker’s 14 brands to drop and which to shrink.
Tavares failed the test of leadership when Stellantis was formed in 2021 and he said all the brands would be given a decade to make a business case to survive.
That timeline was nonsense. Stellantis doesn’t have enough money and talent to develop full model lines for that many brands. No automaker does.
The lineup is overdue for culling.
What to keep, what to kill
The next CEO should come to office willing to immediately eliminate badges like Chrysler, Maserati, Lancia and DS ― and take a long, hard look at Dodge and Alfa Romeo’s justifications for survival. Keep the model names and features that are popular, but stop pretending they all need full model lines.
Keep the main things the main things.
There will be protests and lawsuits, but several brands ― from the old and historic to new and quixotic ― need to go, for the ultimate good of the automaker’s shareholders, workers and dealers.
Automotive industry news: Dodge is pulling the plug on electric Charger Daytona R/T amid lackluster sales
The time for subtlety is long past. Stellantis needs radical surgery.
Here’s a look at brands and which should stay, which must go, and which need to shrink.
Ram
It’s a proven moneymaker and a mainstay of the American pickup market. Keep piling on style, interior features and technology at a price below what GM and Ford charge.
Ram is a nonentity outside North America. Still, it accounts for 15% of Stellantis sales and a disproportionate share of profits. Stellantis should make it a more international player with midsize and compact models, always charging a premium for their brash American style and upscale features.
Jeep
The crown jewel. Every automaker on Earth wishes it owned Jeep, which accounts for 15% of Stellantis sales. Treat it like the precious resource it is: The brightest minds and best features and ideas go there first.
Don’t force-feed Jeep’s growth by adding poorly defined and executed vehicles liker DaimlerChrysler did. Jeep should remain a brand driven by demand, not one that chases volume.
Chrysler
It’s a model, not a brand. Keep calling the minivans Chrysler Pacifica, Town & Country, etc., but drop the expensive charade of developing other new vehicles for it. Chrysler needed the promised and recently postponed electric SUV like the Pacifica needs an umlaut. Pacificä? No thanks. Know what you are. Save the cash and intellectual capital for Dodge.
Dodge
“American muscle” is an identity that can thrive. Feed it with more sporty cars and SUVs. Be bold, brash and loud. Always. The electric Charger Daytona and upcoming gasoline-powered Charger Sixpack are just the beginning.
Peugeot
Too big to fail, this mainstream brand accounts for around 20% of group sales. It can only benefit when resources currently directed to its tiny siblings are redirected its way.
Peugeot dove into SUVs and EVs with more alacrity and commitment than other mainstream European brands. Reward that, and raise the brand’s presence and prestige beyond Europe.
Citroën/DS
As an American, I’m probably in the worst position to choose between these two supremely French brands, but I say restore the luster to Citroën, a brand once synonymous with the heights of Parisian styling and French ingenuity.
Citroën outsells DS 8 to 1, and DS’s entire identity ― even its name ― derives from Citroën’s past triumphs, like the epochal 1955-‘75 DS sedan.
DS brand vehicles are admirable, but the established Citroën brand probably should have got them in the first place.
Opel/Vauxhall
Keep them both. The difference between German-heritage Opel and British-born Vauxhall is largely linguistic and the cost of badges with a Gryphon vs. a lightning bolt. The vehicles are virtually identical, and Opel would still do business in more than in a dozen languages even if the Britain-only Vauxhall badge were retired.
There’s little to be gained by killing Vauxhall, and the cost of new dealer signage and igniting nationalist sentiment against Opel can’t be ignored.
Lancia
The question isn’t whether Lancia should disappear. The question is how long it would take for anyone to notice that it is gone.
This 119-year-old luxury brand only exists in Italy, and barely there. Pull the plug.
Fiat
Too big to fail, too damaged to return to glory, Fiat matches Peugeot’s 20% of Stellantis sales, but at a lower profit margin. Allow it to absorb any popular Lancia models, trim levels or features. Build on the 500’s strength among minicars, but don’t hold your breath for success with bigger vehicles. That’s what Peugeot, Opel and Alfa Romeo are for.
Abarth
A trim level more than a brand, Abarth’s glorious tri-color cloisonne badge adorns performance models of mainstream Fiats, buffing up the brand’s reputation. Abarth is low cost, high return and should be encouraged.
Alfa Romeo/Maserati
Simple Rule: You get one Italian luxury-sport brand.
One of these has to go. I don’t care which, but the Italian luxury-sport brands’ sibling rivalry for scarce resources has weakened both for decades.
I suspect Alfa has more upside, because its brand identity can support vehicles priced from the $30ks into six digits. In Europe, every cent now spent advertising DS and Lancia should go to attracting their buyers to Alfa.
So there, Mr./Ms. Next CEO. You started the day with 14 brands. We’re down to 10, with a plan for how to get the most out of the survivors.
And it’s not even lunch yet.
Contact Mark Phelan: 313-222-6731 or mmphelan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark_phelan. Read more on autos and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Next Stellantis CEO should drop Chrysler, Maserati, Lancia, DS brands
