By Jon Sindreu

Stellantis, the owner of Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge and Ram Trucks, wants to be seen as a Detroit-focused enterprise that can ride the Trump administration's tariffs. Investors, who remain aware of the carmaker's other 10 brands and its particular struggles to sell cars in the U.S. aren't buying it.

Stellantis assembles 58% of the vehicles it sells in the U.S. and, of these, 80% of content is domestic or USMCA-compliant from Canada and Mexico. The carmaker is thus close to meeting the administration's new terms of an 85% threshold for not paying any tariffs in the first year.

Chief Financial Officer Doug Ostermann spoke Tuesday about steps being taken to make up the small, remaining shortfall by shifting supply chains, and even about potential advantages from protectionism in the long run.

"The intent of the administration is to strengthen the new U.S. manufacturing base," he said, "and we certainly consider ourselves the home team."

Stellantis' U.S.-traded shares were down around 2% in early trading Wednesday after the company scrapped its 2025 outlook as a result of the trade war. For April as a whole, Stellantis is down roughly 21% in the equity market, whereas Volkswagen is up about 2%. Ford, another U.S.-focused player, has lost only 1%.

Stellantis needs to show that it can overcome its non-tariff-related problems, namely a lack of direction after losing its chief executive in December and a fall in sales, which shrunk by a quarter in North America between January and March relative to a year earlier -- a result of excessive inventories, high prices and a stale product lineup.

But it might also matter that the "home team" pitch is ironically marred by what could be an advantage, which is Stellantis's getting 60% of its revenues from outside of the U.S. through brands such as Fiat, Citroën and Opel.

The group, which has its headquarters in the Netherlands, came about via the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Groupe PSA in 2021, which were in turn amalgamations of previously independent carmakers. While it initially succeeded in generating efficiencies across brands, it was a project designed for a time when the auto market was still globalizing, electrification hadn't yet stalled and players were eager to pool development resources.

Yes, a global carmaker built up from a myriad of domestically focused operations across geographies could theoretically work out in a more protectionist world, but history shows this is extremely hard to do.

Stellantis was already a complex story. It will struggle to convince investors that it is a relative winner from even more complexity.

Write to Jon Sindreu at jon.sindreu@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 30, 2025 10:51 ET (14:51 GMT)

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