Stellantis CEO says carmaker is on pace to fix sales problems after poor performance this year

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Stellantis CEO says carmaker is on pace to fix sales problems after poor performance this year

2024-10-15 05:44 Last Updated At：05:50

DETROIT (AP) — Stellantis is fixing its slowing U.S. sales at the right pace after fumbling a marketing plan earlier this year, CEO Carlos Tavares told reporters Monday.

Tavares, who last week pushed out the carmaker's chief financial officer and the chief operating officers for both North America and Europe in a management restructuring, told reporters at the Paris Motor Show that he is responsible for the bad things that have happened at the company, but also for the good.

“If I don't want that responsibility I should do something else,” said Tavares, who reiterated that he plans to retire when his contract expires in 2026. The board last month confirmed that it's searching for a successor.

Tavares said he also should get credit for successfully merging the companies as well as making Peugeot and Opel profitable during the past decade.

He said the company is in a “Darwinian period,” and nothing is off the table including plant closures or shutting down brands. “When you are fighting for survival, you have to consider everything is on the table.”

Stellantis, formed from the 2021 merger of France's PSA Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, has struggled this year in both Europe and the U.S.

In the European Union, it is fighting cuts in government electric vehicle subsidies and Chinese competitors as it tries to sell more EVs to reach a goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 55% by 2030. The EU has planned tariffs on imported Chinese EVs.

Sales have been down most of the year in the U.S., and discounts to counter high sticker prices that came after a poor second quarter didn't work. Third-quarter sales fell 20%, and they’re down over 17% for the first nine months. The rest of the auto industry saw sales increase 1% from January through September.

In the U.S., Stellantis' dealer inventory ballooned to just over 430,000 vehicles in June.

Tavares said Monday that has dropped by 52,000 in recent months, and the company is trying to get below 350,000 by Christmas for a “fresh start” going into the new year. He expects the new leadership team to produce stronger profits and better customer satisfaction.

But David Kelleher, owner of a Stellantis dealership near Philadelphia, said dealers still have a 4 1/2 month supply of some models. Three years ago, he sold 170 new vehicles per month. Now he's down to 90, and has to make up for the lost transactions by selling more used cars.

Stellantis needs to start building gas-powered and hybrid vehicles that people now want to buy, and hold off on EVs until a better charging system is in place, Kelleher said. “I think if we don’t radically change our philosophy on product, we’re going to have a bigger issue, and one that is much harder to dig our way out of,” said Kelleher, a member of the company's national dealer council.

Kelleher said the company got out of sedans and has no midsize SUV, the largest part of the U.S. market.

Struggles in Europe and the U.S. pushed first-half net profits down 48% compared with the same period last year. That led Stellantis to slash full-year financial forecasts.

The company also has labor problems. In Italy, a union is calling for a one-day strike on Friday to protest production cuts. The United Auto Workers in the U.S. is threatening strikes at several plants, alleging that Stellantis isn't keeping commitments to build vehicles.

Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds, said Stellantis for years has lacked affordable models that many buyers in the U.S. now want.

The coronavirus pandemic and global computer chip shortage saved the company from a reckoning over the issue, Drury said, because many buyers spent big on large, expensive vehicles when they couldn't travel or dine out.

With too few computer chips, automakers limited production to high-profit loaded-out vehicles.

But now, as the chip shortage has eased, most people are looking for more affordable transportation, with still-high interest rates, Drury said. “You've got people who are looking at practicality and just want basic stuff,” he said. "They (Stellantis) don't have anything in that realm."

As a result, Stellantis vehicles sit on dealer lots for 100 days before selling, double the industry average, Drury said.

Much of Stellantis' product lineup is old, with few recent updates, including its top seller, the Ram pickup, which got only a modest refresh this year, said Sam Abuelsamid, mobility analyst for Guidehouse Insights.

“They don't necessarily have the right products in the right segments,” he said. “There's a bunch of stuff coming, but it's not here yet.”

The company has little in the way of affordable vehicles. For example, the Jeep Compass small SUV has one version starting around $26,000 excluding shipping, most versions are priced over $30,000.

The company does have plans for a new small electric Jeep costing around $25,000, Abuelsamid said.

Dealers have revolted, calling publicly for increased discounts to move the vehicles.

Drury doesn't see a quick way out of the situation because it can take years to roll out new vehicles to match market demand. The company got out of midsize and compact cars in the U.S. nearly a decade ago.

So there's little Tavares can do to fix things quickly, Abuelsamid said. “Aside from incentives and price cuts, not really,” he said.

Germans mourn attack on Christmas market with no answers about why

2024-12-21 15:18 Last Updated At：15:21

MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — Germans began Saturday mourning another violent attack and their shaken sense of security after a Saudi doctor drove a black BMW into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers on Friday evening, killing at least two people, including a small child, and injuring at least 60 others in what authorities called a deliberate attack.

Authorities identified the suspect as a 50-year-old who has been living in Germany for nearly two decades and practicing medicine there. He was arrested Friday evening at the site of the attack as medical officials tended to the injured, and was taken into custody for questioning.

But on Saturday there were still no answers as to what caused the man to drive into a crowd in the eastern Germany city of Magdeburg.

The violence shocked the country and the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that’s part of a centuries-old German tradition. It prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser were due to travel to Magdeburg on Saturday, and a memorial service is to take place in the city cathedral in the evening.

“My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives," Scholz wrote on X. "We stand beside them and beside the people of Magdeburg.”

Magdeburg is a city of about 240,000 people, west of Berlin, that serves as Saxony-Anhalt’s capital. Friday’s attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest at a tram stop in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone, his head arched up slightly. Other officers soon arrived and took the man into custody.

The two people confirmed dead were an adult and a toddler, but officials said additional deaths couldn't be ruled out because 15 people had been seriously injured.

“As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city," Saxony-Anhalt's governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters. “Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many.”

Authorities identified the suspect as a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who moved to Germany in 2006 and who had been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Magdeburg.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned the attack on X but did not mention the suspect’s connection to the kingdom.

Christmas markets are a German holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages, now successfully exported to much of the Western world.

Hours after Friday's tragedy, the wail of sirens clashed with the market’s festive ornaments, stars and leafy garlands.

Magdeburg resident Dorin Steffen told dpa that she was at a concert in a nearby church when she heard the sirens. The cacophony was so loud “you had to assume that something terrible had happened.”

She called the attack “a dark day” for the city.

“We are shaking,” Steffen said. “Full of sympathy for the relatives, also in the hope that nothing has happened to our relatives, friends and acquaintances.”

The attack reverberated far beyond Magdeburg, with Haseloff calling it a catastrophe for the city, state and country. He said flags would be lowered to half-staff in Saxony-Anhalt and that the federal government planned to do the same.

“It is really one of the worst things one can imagine, particularly in connection with what a Christmas market should bring," the governor said.

Moulson reported from Berlin.

Stellantis CEO says carmaker is on pace to fix sales problems after poor performance this year

News

Stellantis CEO says carmaker is on pace to fix sales problems after poor performance this year

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