Selling low volumes of vehicles may be a counterintuitive approach for brands that have struggled to make their mark in North America, but that's the plan to elevate Stellantis NV's Italian brands here, according to their executives.
They want to position Alfa Romeo, Fiat and Maserati as the company's upscale offerings compared to its mass-market U.S. brands like Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram. Stellantis officials say pushing vehicles with incentives to generate volume has cost the Italian brands their cachet and quality in the past. Now as the brands introduce new electrified vehicles, the vision is for pricing discipline to make up for lower volumes. The messaging, however, comes amid recession worries and high rates of inflation.
"The hoopla and excitement about some of these brands coming back never materialized into sales," said Ivan Drury, director of insights at auto information website Edmunds.com Inc. "When there were sales, they were discounted. They were not as premium of a brand that was expected given as much anticipation there supposedly was on their return to market."
