20 May 2021
11:14
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Stellantis, the fusion group of Fiat (Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler and Jeep) and PSA (Peugeot, Opel, Citroën and DS), is terminating all contracts with its dealers in Europe. In Belgium it concerns about eighty dealer companies with a multitude of branches.
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The dealers will lose their right to sell the Stellantis brands on June 1, 2023. By then a new dealer network should be ready, which will in all probability be much smaller than it is now.
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Stellantis provides a whole series of explanations for the drastic intervention. For example, there is the impact of electrification. Electric cars require significantly less maintenance than cars with a combustion engine. Furthermore, the car buyer has changed. While he used to visit the showroom a few times before making the purchase decision, he has already done his homework online and the role of the seller in the showroom is much smaller.
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But the merged group also points to the new European rules that gnaw at the exclusivity that automakers can give their own dealers for the sale and maintenance of cars.
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Overlap
The main reason seems to be mainly a rationalization of the dealer network. Due to the merger of the two companies, there is a lot of overlap between dealers. According to Stellantis spokesman Dominique Fotignies, there are about 50 dealerships in our country that sell the PSA brands Peugeot, Citroën, Opel and DS. There are also about thirty companies that sell the FCA brands Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler and Jeep. All these dealerships often have several branches. It is not clear how many of these will remain in 2023.
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Stellantis is the result of the gigantic merger between the car giants PSA and FCA. It was announced in 2020 and was a fact in January. Because the models of the brands of the two groups have a lot of overlap, it was expected that the merger would lead to a thorough restructuring among the dealers.
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