Case in point - the sub $40K PHEV offering from Stellantis in Europe is a DS PHEV, starting in Q4 2021, and lacks AWD.
The Germans have more expensive PHEVs that have AWD - guess who will generate the most profit in EU on PHEVs in 2021 and 2022?
DS9? Are you talking about it or something else? It's a Chinese special which is overpriced in Europe. No doubt about it. So far this year DS has the most issues out of any ex-PSA brands. Heck it's even more problematic than Alfa in Europe. And DS has recently updated and electrified models which is something what Alfa lacks.
So maybe you can understand my frustration with their desire of keeping DS brand alive. IMO they should put all of their bets on Alfa and Maserati while simultaneously elevatinf picture of Peugeot brand.
Imperato's statement about not coming to AR as a career move acknowledges that understanding.
Imparato is not telling the truth very often.
This move, of course if he gets it right, is a career defining moment, it's something which can with his age put him at Stellantis CEO seat in 5 years time.
The French market (read all Eurpean home markets) won't see it this way. It's not just a French government interest. The French government has a stake because the French voter makes that possible. That's why Stellantis exists - lessen French power. But you can lessen French power all you want, and it doesn't change the parochial nature of the European auto market. Germany isn't much better. Opels sold as company cars in Germany will of necessity be built in Germany, for example. European businesses understand taking care of yourself and family first. Personally purchased vehicles may have a better chance of being manufactured in China, especially the economy segments. Frenchmen are not going to take kindly to building Italian cars, ESPECIALLY if they're not also building French cars on the same lines, and DEFINITELY not if the French car is perceived to be inferior. Likewise in Italy and Germany and in like respects.
French state is here it seems. It's very much involved. Search something about Euro 7 and how French Minister and Stellantis CEO have acted together and are calling for abandonment of Euro 7 idea which according to them would be a death of internal combustion engine. Euro 7 is pushed by Green parties and maybe even by Germans and would come into effect as soon as 2025.
Company cars? Interesting! PSA doesn't like company car idea very much. They are pushing for retail sales. I'm not sure if you've read carefully what Imparato said about Tonale's sales goals in the EU. He wants fleet sales at as much as 45%. Some articles said 10% but it should be a typo.
PSA Groupe was king of retail sales in Europe. I believe that it's also due to French market where lease and company cars are not so popular as in Germany. So can it be applied on Tonale?
One slide from the latest Stellantis presentation doesn't put much fate into powertrain side, to me Nidec and Punch seems like a ultimate cost cut solutions:
View attachment 4453
Ah yes, it was already in "PSA" presentation 2 months ago:
Basically French have made all of FCA electrification efforts useless. They are expensive. That's what I heard.
But at this moment both FCA and PSA are buying electrification technology. None of them have it in the house, supply chain in the house.
I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. I was trying to talk in terms of where profits will come from for future vehicles in Europe, in relation to how competitive future Stellantis vehicles with PSA designs (subtext being, they wont). Bili has said the PSA is profitable, which is news to me - I need to dig more into the financial statements. It sounds, based on his explanation, that this profitability is in large part due to
1) french nationalism
2) bare bone cost cutting
neither of which are sustainable or are part of the values of a company I want to buy vehicles from. Hopefully Tavares keeps his hands off Grand Cherokee/Grand Wagoneer.
French market is very specific. They are not after sophisticated mechanical solutions, they are not after premium (luxury in US) brands, they are after chic cars.
So how car looks means almost everything for them. No wonder that Groupe PSA has made so much effort on stylistic car differentiation, both on the inside and on the outside. They are spending very little to none to differentiate cars mechanically except for fine tuning.
Or Opel profitability. Some costs were taken by GM and it's like that to this day. In addition to this they put almost all the risks on dealerships. I posted a topic where some French Opel dealers said that PSA is pushing them out of business. So it's not all rosy in PSA's world.
But what makes me nervous is obvious push from PSA's side of Stellantis to do almost all as PSA was doing. Electrification plans, car platform plans... And they want to make them worldwide. Company which failed in 2 out of 3 of their major regions.
We'll see how many FCA's policy will they take. So far it looks that PSA's philosophy is prevailing.
I don't want to say that everything is bad from PSA. I'm full of praise for their marketing and also retail sales channel. They are good at it. Yet somehow CFO of Stellantis came from FCA's side. Go figure.
ZERO ARs in the US are diesels. The bigger issues seem to be with QV units anyway. On top of all that, US emissions requirements create a different requirement for programming of emissions control systems, and one has to wonder if US ECU programs were done haphazardly.
It could be but I'm not sure why would they differ so much unless some ECU operations are forbidden in US and not in EU and vice versa.
2.0 turbo issues were solved long ago.
I'm a farm kid, and thought it was pretty cool. Not Cummins B cool, let alone 3406 CAT cool, but that diesel rumble is sweet done right. I do NOT like "rolling coal," but Dad's old IHC tractor (5488, last of the pre-CaseIH 2WDs) with the DT466 certainly will under full load if you set the fuel screw right. It will also eat that pulling gear.