Alexandre
The search for a new general manager for Stellantis is much more than just a leadership transition, it could redefine the future of some of the Group's brands, including premium brands Alfa Romeo, DS and Lancia. While John Elkann, Chairman of Stellantis, is in discussions with candidates for this key position, many shareholders expect the future CEO to be able to determine which brands from Stellantis' extensive portfolio of 14 brands will be viable in the long term.
Stellantis, born of the merger of Fiat-Chrysler and PSA in 2021, has the largest portfolio of brands in the global automotive sector. However, this diversity raises a dilemma. While brands such as Jeep, Ram and Peugeot are well established, others, particularly in the premium segment, are struggling to stand out. Alfa Romeo, DS and Lancia are among the most vulnerable brands, particularly on the European market, where they hold derisory market shares. In 2024, Alfa Romeo and Lancia together accounted for just 0.6 % of the European market, a far cry from giants like Audi, Mercedes or BMW.
Portfolio rationalization, as suggested by several analysts, is becoming an increasingly plausible option for simplifying Stellantis' operations. According to experts at Oliver Wyman, the Group's premium brands could be particularly exposed. Alfa Romeo, with models such as the Stelvio and Giulia, DS and Lancia, risk becoming niche brands. The heritage and strong identities of these brands are undeniable, but their current performance is no longer sufficient to guarantee their future.
Alfa Romeo: a niche brand
For Alfa RomeoYear after year, the brand has become a niche player. Despite the Tonale, a compact SUV designed to boost sales, launched in 2022, followed by a Junior in 2024, sales have plateaued at just over 60,000 units. A figure that declines year after year. The goal of selling more than 100,000 units a year seems remote.
The Junior finally gets off to a good start but it remains specific to the European market. Tonale sales are running out of steam (an update is scheduled for mid-2025), and the Stelvio and Giulia will be replaced in the short term by 100 % electric models, pending hybrid versions, which cannot guarantee their success.
Lancia: a difficult renaissance
Lanciawhich has long been the pride of the Italian automotive industry, faces similar challenges. The brand, which has never regained its former glory, remains a shadow of its former self. For years, it survived on a single model marketed mainly in Italy. With just 0.3 % market share in Europe, Lancia is struggling to make a place for itself in the face of fierce premium competition. However, interesting projects are underway. After the Ypsilon in 2024, Lancia plans to unveil a Ypsilon HF in 2025, followed by the Gamma in 2026, a key model that could restore the brand's lustre.
Yet even with these launches, Lancia's future remains uncertain. The challenge is immense, and Lancia risks becoming a symbol of the past, confined to very limited segments.
The future CEO's dilemma
John Elkann, President of Stellantis, is attached to Italian brands. And yet, for shareholders, the next CEO of Stellantis will have to make some tough decisions to ensure the Group's long-term future. A source privy to John Elkann's thinking told Reuters that any candidate for Stellantis CEO without a brand vision would not be "the right choice".
The challenge is how to balance the rationalization of the portfolio while preserving brands that still have development potential. The future CEO will also have to address the transition to electrification. and how to reposition these brands to meet the requirements of each market.
You can't simultaneously position Lancia as a premium brand (after years of low-cost), release a magnificent concept car and at the same time deny the brand specific investments to reflect this positioning (excluding marketing) and be surprised when the targeted clientele doesn't come back right away. The judgment on Lancia's potential is therefore unfair. The brand needs a flagship (including a niche one - it's important to make people want to see it, and in this case to offer the concept almost as it is to a few collectors, like the 500e and the Alfa Stradale 33), time, products in line with the slogan ("Pure"-"radical", which the new Spanish Ypsilon is not) would have been a good way to go. Making courageous decisions doesn't necessarily mean closing down brands; it can also mean explaining to shareholders that profit doesn't just fall from the sky and requires investment.
Stellantis is a destroyer of Italian car brands. Lancia has been relaunched but its future is uncertain, DS is a useless brand, a fake premium that serves no purpose, and he dares to include Alfa Romeo in the list of vulnerable and uncertain brands, which is a disgrace.
In recent years, Tavares has done everything he can to destroy anything that isn't original Peugeot.
Who decided to create Stellantis?
As for Johh Elkann, there's plenty to be disappointed about.
If Elkann had done things right instead of leaving the group in the hands of a quality-killer for 4 years, under-investing in the Italian brands and failing to get DS off the ground for a decade, they wouldn't be where they are today... Just look at what the Koreans did with Genesis in the same time frame.
The reality is that Elkann, Tavares at the time, Imparato and their shareholders want to sell at a premium while offering cars that are not as good as the competition, in order to make even more money. Like the decision to turn Alfa Romeo into an SUV brand: of course there's demand for a compact car, but an SUV is more profitable, so they're just doing it to the detriment of an identity that's being eroded further and further...
If that's what it was all about, Agnelli should have agreed to sell Alfa Romeo to Volkswagen back then. It would have been a heartbreaker, but far less than this never-ending nightmare with PSA...
FCA wasn't investing enough already, but under Stellantis it's been like a bummer, so who's surprised by these derisory sales?
Sell Alfa Romeo to any group, and they'll make something better of it than these incompetent cheapskates...
Il problema non sono i brand ma i modelli che non sono all'altezza. Lancia Y 23000 euro per un modello di segmento B è troppo. Si è passati da un modello che costava 15/17000 ed era un best seller del mercato italiano ad un modello che costa, come minimo, il 50% in più e non vende nulla. I motori non aiutano ma chi si compra un Pure TECH con tutti questi problemi e questi richiami. Alfa invece ha motori non adeguati ai modelli. Per la Junior mettere un motore francese e' da folli. Sarebbe da cacciarlo a calci solo per avrer pensato una cosa del genere pensa averla portata in produzione.
Sometimes I wonder what kind of bubble some managers and/or shareholders are living in! Of course, planning and managing a heavy industry like the automotive sector is clearly no easy task... but in the case of Stellantis, how can you imagine that 3 brands like Alfa, Lancia and DSx can develop when they already have almost no customers, when the products are similar and often disconnected from the market (DS8?).
Good luck to the lucky one! 🙄
Luca de Meo's name was bandied about for a while, but was finally dropped for various reasons.
Today, Antonio Filosa, an Italian, is said to be in the running to succeed Tavares. An internal recruitment.
To be continued...
Ich bin ein Alfisti aus Überzeugung.
Nur Ohne Werbung läuft halt nichts.
The answer is obvious. Lancia has been languishing for too long. DS is a creation from scratch. Only Alfa has a brand image that is still interesting, albeit in steep decline. Even on its own, Alfa can count on synergies with Jeep, Dodge and even Maserati to make its D and E segment projects profitable, and the European brands for the others.
By reallocating the resources lost to DS and Lancia, it should be possible to offer a real range (3 SUVs and one or two crossovers with the current plans). At the very least, we'll also need a handsome sedan to enhance our sporty image, a compact car to increase volume, and possibly a coupé to assert our premium status.
Ehrlich gesagt, gebe ich der Marke DS keine Zukunft.
DS bleibt ein Modell von Citroen.
Wer braucht ein Auto von DS mit frz. Designer Aus-
Stattzugeben?
Then it's easy to suggest that Abarth should once again become a sports label for Fiat models, that RAM and Dodge should be merged and that DS should once again become Citroën's premium division. That's already three brands down... But closing Lancia stores when you've just opened them wouldn't make any sense.