Stellantis — like many other automakers — is in survival mode right now as President Trump’s tariffs wreak havoc on the global supply chain and the U.S. automotive industry. In an effort to boost sales and keep prices somewhat manageable for buyers, the trans-Atlantic company is offering employee discounts to the general public. It’s a similar move to what Ford did last week and a worrying sign that the auto industry is on the brink of something catastrophic.
Discounts are being implemented across the board on most 2024 and 2025 Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram models with the exception of of the Ram 1500 RHO and Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392, according to Automotive News. If you’re buying one of those trucks, you probably don’t need the extra savings anyway. Right now, there’s no word on exactly how deep the discounts will be. Here’s what Stellantis told the outlet:
“This week we launched aggressive and consistent incentive and marketing support for April, including an exciting and competitive enhancement that will allow our customers ‘America’s Freedom of Choice’ between employee price or current cash incentives,” a Stellantis spokesperson said[.]
The move follows Trump’s brand new 25 percent tariffs on all imported vehicles that started on April 3. Analysts believe this action could end up raising the average new vehicle price by thousands of dollars, AutoNews reports. It also sure looks like this is just the beginning, too. The same 25 percent tariff is set to be lobbied on major components like engines and transmissions starting on May 3. I’m sure that will be its own self-inflicted disaster for the world economy.
Stellantis has a problem
Stellantis is being hit particularly hard by these tariffs even though it’s technically sort of an American company. It produces a ton of vehicles and parts in Mexico, including the electric Jeep Wagoneer S, the Jeep Compass, Ram Heavy Duty trucks and the Ram ProMaster van. It also builds its twin-turbo Hurricane straight-six motor and its 6.4-liter Hemi V8 in the country.
Not to be left out of the fun, Canada also produces some of Stellantis’ most key vehicles: the Pacifica minivan (Chrysler’s only product) and the immensely important all-electric Charger Daytona. Both of those vehicles are built in Windsor, Ontario. All in all, about 60 percent of the vehicles Stellantis sells in the U.S. are built domestically. That’s a hell of a lot less than the 80 percent of vehicles Ford builds here.
This all comes just a day after Ford launched a very similar program called From America, For America. It will give any customer access to thousands of dollars in discounts for just about everything Ford makes other than the Expedition, Super Duty pickups and the Lincoln Navigator.
To be fair, employee discounts to drum up sales aren’t exactly anything new. Ford famously used them in 2009 to get sales up during the… oh God… oh no…. Great Recession. History doesn’t always repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes.
