Jeep had a terrible 2024. The iconic all-terrain vehicle brand and crucial profit source for Stellantis saw sales ebb, dealers annoyed, and shifts reduced at its Toledo plant.
Competitor market dynamics are pressuring Jeep. Ford’s Bronco has created the first true Wrangler rival in decades, but that doesn’t account for the overall market retraction.
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The truth is that Jeep is the most valuable brand in the enormous Stellantis organogram. And as pressures elsewhere in Stellantis have increased, its leadership has leaned too heavily on Jeep, inflating prices to improve margins without creating the product support to justify those price premiums in the market.
Elkann to the rescue
Stellantis has made a significant intervention to rightsize and rescue its business this year. Controversial CEO, Carlos Taveres, has left his position sooner than scheduled – although a replacement had not been confirmed.
Interim leadership for Stellantis now falls to John Elkann. Scion of the Angellis, a powerful Italian industrial family that owns Fiat, Elkann has a global vision and is adept at navigating government and union interests.
In a time of crisis and reorganization, Elkann has the skills Stellantis desperately needs. And he might just be bringing a digital edge, too.
Meta data for Jeep?
Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, made several new appointments to the Meta board during the second week of January, including Elkann.
The Elkann appointment could bring untold benefits for Stellantis. American and European car companies and engineering teams are desperately struggling with the issues of digitization and data management.
Car customers want more digital integration, but that’s tricky engineering for car companies. How is data effectively secured without creating terrible Smartphone in-car experiences or clunky UX? More importantly, how does AI help accelerate product development and R&D or convert more CRM leads to conversions?
Meta operates Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Its profound knowledge of UX design, device interfacing, in-depth user engagement and data science is unrivalled. Elkann’s position on the Meta board of directors gives him incredible insight to one of the world’s pioneering tech and data companies.
Moving beyond legacy OEM ecosystems
Stellantis, even in the Jeep ecosystem, doesn’t have pioneering digitization or data projects. Some might question why that’s needed.
Jeep is a rugged adventure brand, but that’s ignoring how strong technology brands are in that outdoor exploration and adventure space. Think of Garmin and Wahoo wearables, the Apple Smartwatch, and many outdoor activity-tracking apps, like Strava. They create valuable source user and customer data regarding behaviour, routine and preferences.
Imagine the potential of a deeply advanced Jeep native app? Trails, routes, adventure venues, Mopar upgrades and custom tyre pressure recommendations based on location and season. Or throttle position and steering angle guidance for grade 4 and 5 difficulty trails, drawing Jeep community data and real-time vehicle location and positioning. The potential is enormous.
The exposure and insights Elkann will have, being on the Meta board, could provide a radical rethink about the Stellantis approach to sub-brands and customer data experiences.
At a time when the automotive industry is desperately looking towards Big Tech for software engineering inspiration and data insights, Stellantis might have lucked into a very privileged position at Meta.
