Dodge, the weak brand of the Stellantis group
- The Dodge brand was the Chrysler Group's mid-range brand located in price range between the Plymouth and Chrysler brands. Another mid-range brand, De Soto, was removed in 1960. Dodge gradually oriented its range towards more sportiness, with the Charger and Challenger models, a bit like Pontiac (from the GM group) with its Firebirds or Mercury (from the Ford group) with its Cougars.
- However, Dodge did not have the chance to be marketed either on the European market or on the Chinese market, which resulted in a North American market brand oriented. As a result, Dodge did not benefit from growth between 2005 and 2022. The brand even fell sharply between 2013 and 2021, dropping from 800,000 units to 200,000 in 2021 (-75%). This sales drop is mainly due to the decline and then the end of the Caravan minivan (twin brother of the old Plymouth Voyager).
- The strategy of former Fiat-Chrysler Group boss Sergio Marchionne had been to drop the Caravan minivan from the Dodge line-up because "it wasn't sporty enough" and therefore didn't fit the image he wanted the brand to portray.
- Fiat acquired the Chrysler Group in 2011, which then included the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands. As a last resort, Sergio Marchionne had decided to eliminate the Chrysler and Dodge brands in the long term because of their too low sales volume.
- After the death of Sergio Marchionne in 2018 and the merger of Fiat-Chrysler with PSA in 2021, a new strategy was put in place, which aims to perpetuate the Chrysler and Dodge brands. However, the Dodge brand remains fragile since the separation of the pickup branch renamed Ram, which sells more than 600,000 vehicles each year.