October 7, 2025 - Stellantis to Invest $10B in U.S.

This is the Telemetry Transportation Daily for October 7, 2025, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, Vice President of Market Research for Telemetry.  

Stellantis has had a pretty rough time since it came into existence through the early 2021 merger of PSA and Fiat Chrysler. Along with all of the challenges facing every automaker during the pandemic and the period since, such as supply chain disruptions, the transition to electrification, and now trade wars, Stellantis has been dealing with the effects of many of the pre-merger FCA-era product planning and major quality issues. 

Jeep and Ram were the cash cows for FCA during the 2010s, and the decision was made to take the Jeep brand upmarket, and all of the models got more premium and significantly more expensive. At the same time, quality took a big hit and eventually sales began to decline. The addition of the full-size Wagoneer only made the problems worse for Jeep. Similarly, Ram trucks got more expensive, and the 2024 refresh dropped the V8 engines from the lineup, leading many customers to look elsewhere. The launch of Stellantis' first EV for North America has also gone poorly. 

Since the firing of former CEO Carlos Tavares last December, the company has tried to move quickly to reverse course on many of the previous decisions, including repricing many models, cancelling battery electric versions of the Ram trucks, working with suppliers to improve quality, and bringing V8s back to the lineup, starting with the trucks and probably adding one to the Dodge Charger as well. Stellantis is reportedly planning to invest $10 billion in the U.S. over the next several years on updated products and manufacturing. This will likely include a reversal of Tavares's effort to shift more production to lower-cost regions like Mexico. Tavares also invested heavily in Europe despite a shrinking market there. 

With the tariff issues, some of this investment will likely include moving production of key volume models like the new Jeep Compass to the U.S. The Compass was slated to be produced in Brampton, Ontario, but the retooling of that factory was paused earlier this year, and no new plan has been announced yet.  Ram is also expected to produce a new midsize pickup truck in Illinois, although there are no details on that yet. We may also see Stellantis get rid of several brands, including the underperforming Maserati and Alfa Romeo, although they apparently want to keep Chrysler despite it now being down to just one vehicle, a minivan. 

Thanks for listening.