Stellantis: V8 Fever Can't Cure a Two-Continent Malaise

Stellantis' Ram 1500 Rumble Bee V8 sold out in 90 minutes, but the stock is down 59% this year as battery shortages and weak demand idle plants.

A single sales window can sometimes expose an entire industry's contradictions. At Stellantis, that window lasted just ninety minutes.

On Friday, the company's US arm confirmed that the full initial allocation of the Ram 1500 Rumble Bee — fitted with the classic 5.7-litre V8 — was spoken for within an hour and a half. Within 24 hours, production slots through the end of the first quarter of 2027 had also sold out. Buyers and dealers are clearly still hungry for big-displacement combustion engines, even as boardrooms have funnelled billions into an electric overhaul for years. Yet that snapshot badly misrepresents the bigger picture.

A Share Price Under Siege

Investors are staring at a bleak scorecard. The stock has shed 59% since the start of the year and closed Friday at EUR 3.90, down 6.5% on the day. The decline reflects a widening gap between management's assurances and what is actually happening on factory floors.

CEO Antonio Filosa used an industry conference on Wednesday to reiterate his expectation of moderate revenue growth for the full year, according to The Detroit News. That forecast looks increasingly isolated. The awkward question is how growth is supposed to materialise when assembly lines are idling.

Europe's Battery Bottleneck

The production news paints a sobering picture. Sochaux and Rennes are short of batteries for long-range electric vehicles. Mulhouse is grappling with weaker demand for certain models, while output at Poissy must be trimmed to match order intake.

For a company talking expansion while throttling plants over material shortages and cautious consumers, credibility takes a hit. Supply bottlenecks for key components like batteries lay bare how vulnerable the electrified line-up is to logistical disruption. The demand softness at sites such as Mulhouse and Poissy may weigh even more heavily: when customers don't take models in the planned volumes, high-margin segments come under pressure. Ambitious growth targets are hard to defend on that foundation.

Windsor's Three-Week Halt

The industrial base is creaking on the other side of the Atlantic too. At the Canadian plant in Windsor, which has absorbed roughly CAD 1.9 billion in investment since 2022, management and union representatives announced Friday a forced three-week stoppage affecting more than 6,000 workers during October. The company cites sluggish demand and looming tariffs.

The US business, long a dependable profit engine, is where the real fault line runs. Third-quarter deliveries stabilised at 324,277 vehicles year on year, helped by a 73% sales jump for the light-duty Ram 1500. But the high-margin Jeep brand is showing severe braking marks: quarterly shipments fell 20%, with the Grand Cherokee down 30%.

According to industry estimates from Cox Automotive, the Detroit Three lost further ground last quarter. Together they are likely to cover just over 36% of the domestic market — a historic low. Asian rivals, meanwhile, are capturing more than half of new US registrations, powered by popular hybrids and more frugal powertrains, while pure EVs have lost considerable momentum since federal tax credits expired in 2025.

Italy's Paradox

On Stellantis's European home turf, a similar contradiction is emerging. In Italy, the group reported a registration gain of more than 7% for September, yet domestic factories barely benefit. For the Fiat 500 Hybrid at Mirafiori, only 70,000 units are now expected over the year, down from an original target of 100,000. The lines are increasingly filled with models assembled in Poland, Serbia or Slovakia, while Italian suppliers simultaneously suffer from weaker demand among German major customers such as Volkswagen.

A Management Team Standing Firm

Despite the upheaval, the leadership is sticking to its goals, projecting mid-single-digit revenue growth for the full year and an adjusted operating margin in the low single digits. That follows a net loss of EUR 22.3 billion posted last year, and Filosa's turnaround programme leans on cost cuts, sharpening core brands including Jeep, Ram, Fiat and Peugeot, and restoring profitability.

Analysts are responding with visible scepticism. Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to underweight in September, while Bernstein's experts rate it "underperform."

Selling out limited-run V8 specials may warm the hearts of pickup enthusiasts. It will not heal the structural crisis stretching from North America to Europe.