Stellantis Confirms Peugeot Not Coming to U.S., Focus to Be on Alfa, Chrysler

• In a call with media in early February, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares all but confirmed that there are no longer plans to bring Peugeot back to the U.S.
• In 2016, the PSA Group said that it would bring the Peugeot back to the U.S. in the next 10 years. Tavares said a lot has changed since then.
• Tavares also suggested that, despite speculation, Chrysler will likely not be cut from the Stellantis brand lineup.

UPDATE 3/8/2021: As reported by Automotive News Europe, Stellantis has confirmed it is no longer planning to bring the French brand Peugeot back to the U.S. market. In an interesting twist, the company intends to focus on improving Alfa Romeo’s position here instead, under newly named Alfa Romeo North America chief Larry Dominique. Dominique had previously spent the past few years preparing the way for the Peugeot relaunch in North America.

Since the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the PSA Group, which includes the Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel and Vauxhall brands, speculation has abounded on whether PSA’s plans to bring Peugeot back to the U.S. would remain in place. In a call with media today, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares all but confirmed that the French brand doesn’t have a future in the U.S.

“For the time being, I don’t think that is part of the things that we want to prioritize for the next time window,” Tavares said. “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.”

Stellantis already has a strong market share in the U.S., as Tavares pointed out, and is prioritizing increasing the market share of Jeep, Dodge, Ram, and Chrysler, among others that are already here. This is particularly the case for Chrysler, a struggling brand that currently has only the 300 and the Pacifica and Voyager minivans.

Chrysler’s sales have declined in recent years, from 300,000 sales five years ago down to around 110,000 vehicles in 2020. Such results, combined with the change in ownership, have led to speculation that Chrysler is nearing its end in the U.S., but Tavares suggested that Chrysler was here to stay and will instead be reinvented.

“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,” Tavares said. What that future is, the Stellantis CEO said, depends on what is proposed for the brand.