Last Saturday, Stellantis executives met with dealers to address the previous year’s sales challenges, promising significant improvements for 2025.
Cross-brand meeting
During the closed-door meeting, Jeff Kommor, U.S. sales manager, highlighted the importance of consistency in products, pricing, and incentives to meet dealer expectations. The goal is a recovery that is long-lasting, with more robust incentive programs, increased advertising presence including sponsorship at the Super Bowl, and improvements in Ram pickup models to make options more accessible to customers.
The meeting, which included more than 2,600 dealers of brands such as Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram, was part of the National Automobile Dealers Association’s annual convention in New Orleans, running through Sunday. Dealers believe in a new generation of leadership, including Antonio Filosa for the North American region, Tim Kuniskis returning from retirement to lead Ram, and Kommor who recently returned to a larger role in U.S. sales. Dealers were informed of several product changes for 2025, including the postponement of the launch of the Jeep Recon electric SUV until later this year and the potential addition of gasoline and hybrid powertrains for the rugged off-roader.
In addition, dealers have been told that the automaker is looking to launch gasoline versions of its new Dodge Charger by summer, after an electric interaction began hitting dealers in recent weeks. In addition, executives pledged to expand the Ram lineup, including a midsize truck and more affordable Ram 1500 full-size trims.
Dealers had expressed growing frustration with former CEO Carlos Tavares and former North American manager Carlos Zarlenga. They felt that many key decisions with a direct impact on their businesses were made by European executives who were unaware of the peculiarities of the U.S. market.
Dealers in recovery phase for Stellantis
Many already struggling Stellantis dealers are currently still recovering after the company’s market share dropped significantly and U.S. sales for 2024 were down 15 percent from the previous year. Some managers had expressed great concern, fearing for the survival of their businesses, especially in the months when the drop in sales had been particularly pronounced. The situation began to improve toward the end of the year just ended, when Stellantis decided to introduce more competitive incentives on vehicles and intensified marketing activities to decrease the accumulated surplus inventory at dealers, a successful operation as we also confirmed a few days ago.
The change that caused Tavares to leave has fostered a restoration of relations between dealers and the new Stellantis management team in North America, which recently took concrete steps to heal rifts and define a new strategy aimed at regaining market share in 2025. Antonio Filosa, in an interview with reporters at the Detroit Auto Show, confirmed his more direct and practical approach. He also said he is committed to meeting with dealers, listening to their concerns and suggestions. This represents a clear break with the leadership style adopted by Tavares, which, according to some dealers, was based on a more top-down model geared toward imposing sales strategies from the top without fully considering the local context.