Jeep, Ram drive Stellantis profit surge despite sagging vehicle sales

The region’s strong results come in advance of a pivot toward electrification that CEO Carlos Tavares has warned may be painful. But he assured investors that the company is ready to bring to North America the strategy that made it No. 1 in commercial electric vehicles in Europe and No. 2 in overall EVs in Europe.

“We now have the technology, the products, the raw materials, and the full battery ecosystem to lead that same transformative journey in North America, starting with our first fully electric Ram vehicles from 2023 and Jeep from 2024,” he said in a statement Wednesday.

The truck brand is forging into electrification in 2023 with the battery electric Ram ProMaster van and will jump into the EV pickup race next year with the Ram 1500 REV, which was revealed at CES and promoted in a cheeky Super Bowl ad. The ProMaster EV will go on sale in the second half of 2023.

Tavares revealed that the first model year of the Ram 1500 REV sold out in three days. Pre-orders began earlier this month, and the truck is slated to arrive in late 2024.

The company also said it ranked No. 1 in U.S. plug-in hybrid sales with 64,000, up 26 percent, led by the Wrangler 4xe, and said the all-electric Jeep Avenger has been honored with awards in Europe.

Tavares said the plug-in hybrid variant of the Dodge Hornet is coming to the U.S. market in the first half of the year, while shipments for the gas version will begin in the first quarter.

“The way we are preparing for the eMuscle car the future is just outstanding from every dimension I’ve seen: sound, acceleration, performance, design connectivity, features, you name it,” Tavares said. “The e-Dodge is going to be a fantastic success in this market.”

Tavares also touched on the Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois that builds the Jeep Cherokee. The plant is being idled on Feb. 28 and no product has been assigned to it yet.

Stellantis has said that the decision was due to a number of factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, global microchip shortage, and costs related to developing and building electric vehicles.

“Our mission is to bring clean, safe and affordable solutions to ensure freedom of mobility to our citizens,” Tavares said after being asked what his message was to the workers of Belvidere. “This is exactly what we are doing. When we do this, and we execute on physical evidence, what it means to bring a safe, clean and affordable vehicle. We see that there is a very significant challenge on cost.”

Tavares added: “This is not our decision. It is the cost of the technology specifically, the costs of the technology. When you start you start developing a brand new technology, this additional cost needs to be absorbed in a way or another.”

Tavares said later that the “the big problem of electrification is to make it affordable, which means absorbing the additional costs which means transforming the company to be able to bring that affordability” to customers.