DETROIT – What was Chrysler went to Daimler Chrysler then Fiat Chrysler and now Stellantis.
The merger was announced over the weekend and the new CEO on Tuesday talked about how the enlarged company will compete.
It could be considering the metrics of not a lot of overlapping product and good global footprint.
The one thing Stellantis CEO, Carlos Tavares, said Tuesday that should give FCA employees comfort is he doesn’t expect layoffs saying the company’s new global scale will put a shield around jobs.
“We believe that Stellantis needs to be great rather than big,” said Tavares.
The sign went up overnight at the old FCA North America headquarters.
According to reports, the merger of FCA and Peugot creates the world’s fourth largest automaker with 400,000 employees in 130 countries and 30 manufacturing plants.
But the CEO says global scale provides strength to handle a lot meaning no layoffs.
“I think Stellantis is at a point of strong fundamentals to do great things in the future,” said Tavares.
Guidehouse Insights auto analyst, Sam Abuelsamid, says mergers end up with fewer jobs somewhere down the line. But even then Motown will likely be spared at least for the moment.
“They are probably less at risk but I do expect that we will see probably more in Europe than North America,” said Abuelsamid.
He believes the Chrysler brand itself is in jeopardy. Still the company believes it can create $5 billion in value and strengthen its bottom line out of the gate.
IHS market analyst Stephanie Brinley says that makes a huge difference and gives her reason to believe this merger can work.
“It’s powertrain, it’s components. It’s a lot of opportunity to supply your work across more vehicles that saves money,” she said.
Stellantis will depend on Jeep and Ram particularly to help with its profitability.