Jeep, the crown jewel of Stellantis NV’s 14 car manufacturers, will decrease costs and add fashions and options to its lineup this 12 months because it seeks to regain market share misplaced to squeezed shoppers and stiffer competitors in its core US market.
The carmaker is decreasing the sticker value on its top-selling Grand Cherokee SUV by as a lot as $4,000. It’s reducing costs on its Jeep truck, the Gladiator, by a mean of $1,700. The 2024 Jeep Compass, the lowest-priced mannequin in its lineup, begins under $26,000, a mean drop of $2,500, mentioned Antonio Filosa, who became global head of the Jeep model in November.
The 2024 Jeep Wrangler contains $3,000 price of recent content material, like a 12.3-inch contact display screen that comes customary on all trims.
“Inflation was such a big negative hit for families and people here in the US, we needed to do something,” Filosa mentioned in a presentation to reporters Friday on the firm’s US headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan.
It is a important 12 months for the prized SUV model, which noticed its move upmarket falter after larger rates of interest shifted shoppers towards extra inexpensive autos. Jeep has cut production to tame bloated inventories.
The automaker additionally plans to supply new merchandise, together with Jeep’s first full battery-electric choices for US shoppers, the Jeep Recon and the Jeep Wagoneer S.
Learn extra: Stellantis CEO says Chinese EVs are ‘possibly the biggest risk’ facing his carmaker and Elon Musk’s Tesla
The Jeep Wagoneer S, a midsize pure electrical SUV, will come to market within the second half of 2024 as a premium providing with 600 horsepower. The Jeep Recon, an all-electric model of the off-roading Wrangler, will debut at year-end. Filosa mentioned he expects to promote 10,000 totally electrical Jeeps in 2024.
Filosa mentioned the “freedom of choice” of powertrains will probably be a power within the market, a nod to the industrywide slowdown in demand for electrical autos. Jeep, which has traditionally lagged its friends in electrification, is relying on its plug-in hybrid 4xe know-how to succeed in shoppers who aren’t able to embrace pure BEVs.
The Wagoneer nameplate, as soon as a part of a luxury sub-brand launched in 2021, will now be folded into the Jeep lineup, he mentioned.
Misplaced Share
Jeep’s common transaction costs continued to climb final 12 months and its market share tumbled. Jeep’s share fell to three.92% within the fourth quarter of 2023, down from 3.97% a 12 months in the past and 5.17% in 2019, in response to researcher Cox Automotive.
Jeep bought 152,818 autos within the fourth quarter of 2023, down 31% from the identical interval in 2019, although they rose 7% from the fourth quarter of 2023, an indication deliveries are turning round. Stellantis was the one main automaker to submit decrease gross sales in 2023 versus 2022, when chip shortages drained supplier tons, in response to Cox.
Chief Government Officer Carlos Tavares has publicly acknowledged his displeasure with the corporate’s North American efficiency final 12 months.
“I don’t think we were stellar in 2023” when it got here to advertising, managing money stream, manufacturing and coordination with sellers, he mentioned on a convention name with reporters earlier this month. “I’m quite confident 2024 will be better than 2023.”
