Jeep is the “most global brand” of Stellantis, Tavares said, because of its presence in Europe and China as well as North America. Its global push will continue under Stellantis, he said.
The SUV brand is pushing into new markets and higher-priced segments, adding new capability to storied nameplates and stepping into the world of electrification. The premium Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer utility vehicles are on the way later this year, while a redesigned Grand Cherokee soon will offer a third row for the first time.
“The direction is already set. Jeep is not a brand that has any problem of vision or direction,” Tavares said. “It is a brand that needs just to be supported to keep on moving profitably as it has been so far. I think there is a sentence in the U.S. that is something like, ‘If it’s not broken, don’t try to fix it.’ I think that applies very well to Jeep.”
The company’s projected cost savings have risen from $4.5 billion when the merger was proposed in 2019 to about $6 billion. That’s because “the people from the cross-company teams have so many bottom-up ideas,” Tavares said.
“I did not ask for a better number. I just said, ‘Guys, let’s get the job done and let’s execute before we start jumping on the numbers,’ ” Tavares recalled. “But they came back to me and say, ‘Well, we have a problem. The people are working so well together that they are coming with tons of ideas, and we cannot just tell them no because the ideas are very good.’ ”
Around 80 percent of the total synergy amount, he said, will come from how Stellantis leverages the “volume-scale effect in the way we procure parts” and uses common platforms and parts.
“The smarter we are in using common components,” Tavares said, “the better conditions we create for procurement to do a good job in terms of cost negotiation.”
Looking ahead, Tavares said he will rely on North America executives to deliver plans for rolling out more electrification in the U.S., an area in which FCA has lagged its competitors.
Tavares said Stellantis could “contribute a lot” in this area and that “we are here to support and we are here to be part of this quality-of-life improvement of the U.S. society.”
“If they want to get to a decision that is related to a significant resource allocation, it will come to the executive committee, we’ll discuss it and we’ll decide what we need to decide,” Tavares said. “But the guys who are going to propose it are the guys who know the market.”