Tough Decisions, Price Cuts Implemented as Jeep Tries To Rebuild

Stellantis is trying to right the ship. Sales are down, executive turnover is high, and new model launches have been delayed.

The Jeep brand, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) alongside Ram, Dodge and Chrysler, was part of an FCA merger with the French PSA Group in 2021 to form Stellantis. At one time the most profitable of the four, Jeep sales in the U.S. slipped from more than 973,000 in 2018 to about 641,000 in 2023.

Jeep, with its new CEO Antonio Filosa and freshly appointed head of Jeep North American Bob Broderdorf, has sprung to action. The brand is adding content to its cars, lowering prices and working to move vehicles off crowded dealership lots.

It started in September when Jeep added $2,500 worth of content (an eight-speed automatic transmission, power door locks and power windows) to its Gladiator pickup, while only raising the price $205 on base models and lowering the price on the Willys trim.

In October, the brand lowered the price of the 2025 Jeep Grand Cherokee across the lineup. Drops range from $1,000 on the Grand Cherokee Laredo to $4,000 on the Grand Cherokee Summit.

Those price drops apply to the three-row Grand Cherokee L as well. And, in November, Jeep took $7,000 off certain models of the luxury Grand Wagoneer SUV.

“This is not the sexiest thing, but we had 215,000 Jeeps on the ground in July. I will have 140,000, that is my goal by the end of the year. It’s a huge production,” Broderdorf told Newsweek.

To do that, Jeep had to make a tough call. “The pain point of the plants… in order to get to a healthy dealer network for them, I have to simply sell more than I build, right? You can’t build, right? So that’s what we have to do, and that’s what I love about Antonio. He’s willing to make that very tough call right now to fix it so that we can build,” he said.

Jeep parent brand Stellantis, with almost a 150-day market days supply (MDS), has the highest of any automaker during a time when the average was 75 days. MDS is an estimate on how long a particular vehicle will remain in a dealer’s inventory. In October it dropped to 120 days, still well above the industry average of 81 days.

Complicating things, Stellantis is ramping up incentives at the same time as other automakers are increasing their year-end deals to clear out 2024 models, which increases competition.

“The North American region is the largest revenue region for Stellantis, so underperformance of the region will weigh on them. Unfortunately, while rising incentives and lowering prices can help increase sales demand in the short-term, it will depress margins and could impact current Stellantis owners as it relates to the values of their current vehicles, making them less likely to purchase in the future,” Kevin Roberts, director of market intelligence at CarGurus told Newsweek.

“I’ve got very aggressive programs for the dealers, allowing them flexibility to get rid of what they need to get rid of, which doesn’t always sound sexy to customers, but now’s a great time for them to go check it out. Dealers have flexibility to make deals happen,” Broderdorf said.

But, that may not be enough, analysts warn. Robby DeGraff, manager of product and consumer insights at AutoPacific told Newsweek that the brand needs to focus on the intentions of Jeep buyers and whether they’re expecting a high-end luxury vehicle, an off-road vehicle, or both.

“Is it the 4×4 capability of the iconic Wrangler or Grand Cherokee, budget-friendly crossovers that peg AWD capability like the Renegade and Compass, or the choice for leather-rich, tech-filled high-end SUVs. I think there’s definitely a bit of a brand identity crisis happening with Jeep and Stellantis as a whole, and I hope it gets addressed immediately to ensure a bright future,” said DeGraff.

In 2025, Jeep intends to address gaps in its lineup, Broderdorf said. That starts with the Jeep Wagoneer S finally coming to market after delays. Filosa promised that the battery-electric SUV would not come to market until it was “perfect”.

The mechanics of the new Jeep were always solid, Boderdorf explained. “The entire story comes down to software. This is about patches… It’s about programming… I can tell you, just this weekend, I spent three more days in the latest patch, and the change, I’m actually blown away at the change that a simple software patch can do to change the entire interface of a car… I was very happy this weekend, very happy where we’re at. So we’re updating the flashes of those cars, and we’ll be back underway,” he said.