At Stellantis headquarters, driving a company car gets you the best parking spots - but driving anything else can get you the boot. When the Jeep parent company ordered employees back to the office five days a week at its Auburn Hills, Michigan campus, workers discovered that parking a Tesla or Hyundai in a spot reserved for Stellantis vehicles could earn them a ticket from security.
Directors and above will be required to be on-site five days a week from February 16, according to an email sent by Stellantis CFO Joao Laranjo on Friday. It states that the decision will improve customer satisfaction, "strengthen our culture of innovation," and create more opportunities for mentorship and skill development. A set of guidelines entitled "Back Together We Win," sent with the email, describes the five-day-a-week RTO as an "enterprise-wide initiative" that will apply to all employees in all regions.
The federal government paid Stellantis more than $220 million to help upgrade its plants in Ontario before the automaker revealed plans to move some production to the U.S., recent records show. It's more than double the amount the federal government disclosed when asked in October about its Stellantis spending, after the multinational announced that it will scrap plans to build the Jeep Compass at its Brampton plant and assemble it in Belvidere, Ill., instead. Stellantis has received $18,629,124 under the agreement for FYE (fiscal year end) 2023 and $85,936,055 for FYE 2024, for total support of $104,565,179, a spokesperson for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) told CBC News at the time. But the figures did not include the most recent fiscal year, which concluded at the end of March.
The European-American carmaker conglomerate has struggled with declining sales, soaring prices, quality issues, rampant infighting and a culture reportedly so miserable that both labor unions and car dealers high-fived each other when its CEO was ousted last year. Amid a trans-Atlantic blame game over what went wrong, another theme kept coming up: overly aggressive investments in electric vehicles while its Jeep, Dodge and Ram loyalists remained firmly attached to gasoline models.
Three years ago, Jeep unveiled how it was reshaping its portfolio with the launch of three EVs - two of which were bound for the North American market by 2024. The all-electric Jeep Recon and Wagoneer S models were part of the brand's plan to dominate to the electrified SUV market. At the time, parent company Stellantis was aiming for EVs to make up half of Jeep's sales in North America - and all of its sales in Europe - by 2030.
Stellantis today announced the adoption of Tesla's North American Charging System (NACS) for EVs in North America starting in early 2026, followed by 2027 in Japan and South Korea. Tesla Supercharger network availability will start with the Jeep Wagoneer S and Dodge Charger Daytona EV, with more to come, like the Jeep Recon. This gives EV drivers more than 20,000 additional public fast chargers in North America alone.
Robotaxi fever is back, baby! After a bunch of automaker-led autonomous driving projects shut down amid concerns over safety and costs, car companies are expressing a renewed interest in self-driving cars, and robotaxis specifically. Stellantis, which oversees brands like Jeep, Ram, Dodge, and Chrysler, announced today a "new collaboration" with a diverse range of firms, including Nvidia, Foxconn, and Uber, to launch its own robotaxi service.
In the middle of October, Stellantis revealed plans for a substantial investment in the U.S., to the tune of a $13 billion investment over the course of four years with an impact on plants in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. At the time, one of the upcoming vehicles Stellantis teased was a midsize truck, slated to be manufactured at the automaker's Toledo, Ohio-based facility. Earlier this week, Stellantis provided some more information on what to expect as part of its third quarter earnings call.
At the centre of the scandal are "discretionary commission arrangements" (DCAs) - hidden incentives paid by lenders to car dealers for arranging vehicle loans. Under the model, which was in place for more than a decade, dealers could set the interest rate charged to buyers, often inflating borrowing costs to earn larger commissions. The FCA banned the practice in 2021 but is investigating deals dating back as far as 2007.
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