In 2016, the PSA Group (Peugeot Société Anonyme) announced plans to bring the Peugeot brand back to North America within 10 years. This week, Carlos Tavares, CEO of the Stellantis Group (which includes PSA and FCA - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) stated the obvious, which is that much has changed since then. The planned return is no longer planned.
“For the time being, I don't think that is part of the things that we want to prioritize for the next time window. I think it's better that we funnel the talent, the capital, and the engineering capability of our Stellantis company to the existing brands to improve what needs to be improved and to accelerate where we need to accelerate because we already have a very strong presence in this market.”
- Carlos Tavares, Stellantis CEO
Stellantis does already has a strong market share in the United States, of course. The priority is to increase the market shares of the Jeep, Dodge, Ram and Chrysler brands. This is particularly the case with Chrysler, which currently only offers the aging 300 sedan in addition to the Pacifica and Grand Caravan vans (the latter is known in the US as Voyager).
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Chrysler sales have declined in recent years, from 300,000 units five years ago to approximately 110,000 in 2020. These results, combined with the change in ownership, have sent rumours flying in all directions about the future of the nearly 100-year-old brand. Carlos Tavares was reassuring in this regard, suggesting that Chrysler was here to stay and that it would be reinvented instead.
“We consider that this brand is one of the three historical pillars of Stellantis [Fiat and Peugeot are the other two], and of course we are eager, and I am eager, to give this brand a future,” declared Tavares.
The ink on the agreement between PSA and FCA has only just dried, so we can expect to see more announcements in the coming months. There will be changes, but for now, we now know that Peugeot is not coming here, but that Chrysler is – probably – staying.