Stellantis CEO Says Auto World Has Split Into ‘The U.S. and Everywhere Else’ as Trump Rewrites Trade Rules

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The auto industry spent decades turning itself into one giant interconnected machine. Parts crossed borders repeatedly, engineering teams shared technology globally, and automakers tried to spread the cost of new vehicles across as many markets as possible. Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa now sees that model coming apart.

Speaking to analysts on September 10, Filosa described an increasingly clear divide between the United States and the rest of the automotive world. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, tougher approach toward Canada and Mexico, and Washington’s hostility toward Chinese automotive technology are forcing global manufacturers to make decisions that would once have seemed inefficient: different partnerships, engineering strategies, supply chains and sometimes entirely different vehicles for different regions. For Stellantis, whose brands stretch from Jeep and Ram to Fiat, Peugeot and Opel, adapting to that fragmentation has become central to its turnaround.

Filosa Says the Auto Business Now Has Two Worlds

Filosa offered an unusually simple description of an industry famous for complicated global supply chains: there is the United States, and then there is the rest of the world. Speaking at the Jefferies Global Industrials Conference, the Stellantis chief said regulatory rules and consumer demands have diverged enough that the company can no longer assume a vehicle strategy that works elsewhere will translate directly into America. The distinction is particularly important because the United States remains Stellantis’s most important profit market.

That split is already affecting engineering decisions. Filosa said Stellantis is relying entirely on domestic engineering and development for vehicles intended for the United States. Outside the country, the company has considerably more freedom to work with international partners, including Chinese automakers. For a company created by combining Fiat Chrysler Automobiles with France’s PSA Group, that represents a notable shift. Stellantis was built partly around the efficiencies of enormous global scale. It increasingly has to preserve that scale while accepting that political boundaries can dictate how the benefits are actually used.

America Is Too Important for Stellantis to Treat Like Any Other Market

The pressure to create a distinct U.S. strategy is not merely political. North America has been leading Stellantis’s financial recovery. During the second quarter of 2026, company-wide revenue increased 13% from a year earlier to €43.5 billion, but North American revenue rose a much faster 32%. Stellantis’s North American sales increased 6%, while its regional market share climbed to 7.4%, up 40 basis points from the previous year.

Several familiar nameplates helped drive that rebound. U.S. retail sales of the Jeep Grand Wagoneer rose 43% year over year during the quarter, while Ram 1500 sales increased 9%, Dodge Durango sales gained 9% and Chrysler Pacifica sales rose 7%. Those results help explain why Filosa cannot simply resist Washington’s push toward a more insulated automotive market. Stellantis needs Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler to regain momentum in America. The strategic challenge is protecting that recovery without sacrificing the global partnerships and lower-cost technologies that remain valuable elsewhere.

Trump’s Tariff Policy Has Become a Billion-Euro Problem

Trade policy has already moved from an abstract risk to a measurable expense on Stellantis’s financial statements. The automaker currently expects tariffs to create a net headwind of roughly €1.0 billion to €1.2 billion during 2026. Stellantis recorded about €300 million in net tariff costs during the first half alone, even after receiving approximately €400 million connected with a refund of tariffs previously collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

That burden matters because Stellantis is still rebuilding profitability after several difficult years. The company generated only a 1.8% adjusted operating margin in the second quarter, despite its improving revenue and volumes. Every additional tariff therefore competes with money that could otherwise support new vehicles, factory investment, incentives or technology development. Automakers can attempt to absorb some import costs, change sourcing or adjust prices, but none of those responses is painless. For executives planning vehicles several years before they reach showrooms, rapidly changing tariff rules can become almost as troublesome as the tariff rate itself.

Canada and Mexico Show Why an American Wall Is Hard to Build

North American manufacturing was designed around integration rather than three neatly separated national industries. That creates an immediate problem when Washington seeks to reward specifically American content instead of regional content. U.S.-Mexico negotiations tied to the 2026 USMCA review have already focused heavily on automotive rules of origin, steel, aluminum and economic security. American negotiators have pushed for changes that would strengthen U.S.-based manufacturing and reduce what Washington considers free-riding by countries outside North America.

Canada illustrates just how entrenched the existing system remains. Statistics Canada found that more than 93% of Canadian motor-vehicle exports went to the United States in 2025. In 2024, U.S. demand supported roughly three-quarters of the jobs associated with Canada’s automobile and light-duty vehicle manufacturing industry. Stellantis operates within that highly integrated ecosystem, meaning a decision intended to encourage American production can reverberate through factories and suppliers hundreds of kilometres away. Separating the supply chain is therefore possible only at a potentially significant cost in investment, logistics and factory planning.

Stellantis Is Embracing Chinese Partners—Just Not for America

The contrast becomes sharper when Stellantis’s European strategy is examined. The company owns roughly 21% of Chinese electric-vehicle manufacturer Leapmotor and controls 51% of their Leapmotor International joint venture. That operation gives Stellantis exclusive rights to sell and manufacture Leapmotor vehicles outside Greater China. By the end of 2025, the partnership had expanded to more than 850 European sales and service points and recorded more than 40,000 European shipments.

Rather than retreating from the partnership, Stellantis wants to deepen it. Plans announced in May include potential Leapmotor production in Spain, expanded joint purchasing and greater use of China’s highly developed new-energy-vehicle supply ecosystem. Stellantis sees those arrangements as a way to lower costs and shorten development times while keeping more manufacturing inside Europe. Filosa has emphasized, however, that the Chinese partnerships are not being used to develop U.S. models. That separation is becoming strategically necessary: technology that can improve Stellantis’s competitiveness in Europe could create substantial political complications if transferred directly into its American business.

Europe Is Trying to Localize Chinese Know-How Rather Than Shut It Out

Leapmotor is only part of the strategy. Stellantis and Dongfeng announced plans in May for another Stellantis-controlled 51/49 European joint venture covering distribution, manufacturing, purchasing and engineering. The proposal includes selling Dongfeng’s Voyah premium vehicles in selected European markets and potentially producing Dongfeng new-energy vehicles at Stellantis’s Rennes factory in France. Their existing Chinese venture has already produced more than 6.5 million Peugeot and Citroën vehicles over its lifetime.

The distinction with Washington is increasingly visible. Europe has imposed barriers on Chinese-made electric vehicles, but manufacturers are still finding ways to combine Chinese technology and costs with European production. In the United States, even overseas Chinese partnerships by American automakers can become politically contentious. The Trump administration recently criticized Ford’s relationships with CATL, Geely and BYD, including a Geely partnership centred on Europe. For Stellantis, that controversy provides a warning: a partnership can be geographically outside America yet still attract scrutiny in Washington. Keeping business structures clearly separated may therefore become as important as localizing factories themselves.

America’s Technology Firewall Goes Beyond Trump’s Tariffs

Tariffs are only one part of the divide. U.S. rules governing connected vehicles create another barrier between America and the Chinese automotive ecosystem. Importantly, those restrictions were finalized in January 2025 before Trump’s current trade escalation, so they are not solely a Trump policy. Yet they reinforce the direction in which Washington has continued moving: automotive supply chains are increasingly being treated as national-security infrastructure rather than ordinary global commerce.

The Commerce Department’s rule restricts vehicles containing certain connectivity or automated-driving software linked to China or Russia beginning with model-year 2027. Restrictions on specified vehicle-connectivity hardware take effect for model-year 2030, or January 1, 2029 for components without model years. Manufacturers sufficiently controlled by China or Russia are also barred from selling affected connected vehicles in America from model-year 2027. That makes the location of software development, suppliers and corporate control increasingly significant. A car assembled in North America can therefore face problems based not only on where its steel was stamped, but also on who developed the code or communications hardware inside it.

Even Electric-Vehicle Demand Is Moving in Different Directions

The market itself is reinforcing the regulatory split. Global electric-vehicle sales continued growing in August 2026, but Europe supplied much of the momentum. European demand has been supported by government incentives, while the U.S. EV market has been softer following the expiration of federal consumer tax credits in September 2025. Chinese manufacturers, meanwhile, have increasingly sought growth outside their intensely competitive domestic market.

Stellantis’s own results reflect the importance of keeping several technological options open. European sales increased 3% in the second quarter, or 7% when Leapmotor was included, with growth supported by a mix of battery-electric vehicles, hybrids and combustion-powered models. Its new corporate strategy similarly avoids betting the company exclusively on one propulsion system. That flexibility becomes more valuable when government rules move in opposite directions. A company might need affordable EV technology to compete in Europe while emphasizing hybrids, range-extenders or traditional engines for particular American buyers. Regionalization is therefore being driven simultaneously by politicians, regulators and consumers.

Stellantis Is Putting More of Its Own Money Behind the U.S. Divide

Filosa’s strategy is not merely defensive. Stellantis plans to invest more than €60 billion between 2026 and 2030 under its FaSTLAne 2030 program. Roughly 60% of companywide investment is expected to go toward brands and products, and Stellantis intends to allocate 60% of that brand-and-product spending to North America. The region has been given ambitious targets: 25% revenue growth, 35% higher volume and an adjusted operating margin eventually reaching 8% to 10%.

The product plan reflects an effort to rebuild American market coverage rather than depend on a handful of expensive SUVs and pickups. Stellantis plans 11 all-new vehicles in North America and seven additional products priced below $40,000. It also wants North American factory utilization to reach roughly 80% by 2030. Those commitments suggest Stellantis is responding to the changing trade environment by becoming more American inside America rather than abandoning global scale altogether. The company can still develop common platforms and technology, but more final decisions will increasingly be made around regional economics and regulation.

The Era of the Truly Global Car May Be Fading

Stellantis itself now describes the automotive industry as increasingly regional and fragmented. Its new strategy gives regional teams more autonomy while still using shared platforms, technology and purchasing wherever political conditions allow. Vehicle development cycles are targeted to fall from as long as 44 months in 2026 to roughly 24 months, partly so the company can respond faster when consumer preferences, tariffs or regulations change unexpectedly.

That may ultimately be the larger meaning of Filosa’s “United States and the rest of the world” observation. Global automakers are unlikely to stop being global. Stellantis will still operate factories, engineering centres, supplier relationships and brands across multiple continents. But the assumption that one interconnected system can serve every major market is weakening. America is putting greater value on domestic production, domestic technology and economic security, while Europe is experimenting with partnerships that combine Chinese cost advantages with local manufacturing. For car buyers, workers and suppliers, geography is once again becoming part of the vehicle specification.

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