…Tavares said he would be working through the summer with his U.S. team on how to improve performance and cut inventory. “We consider that the job is done in Europe,” he said. “The job is not done in the U.S. and we are now going to take care of that work.”
Tavares said the company’s U.S. plants are producing too many vehicles that need repairs before they can be shipped to dealerships, pointing to the Ram 1500 plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan, as one of the main culprits.
The high-margin RAM pickups and Jeeps that Stellantis sells to U.S. consumers have driven its profits, but the company’s weak margin “raises questions over Stellantis’ cost efficiency reputation,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a client note.