Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together

Can Opel help save the Chrysler brand?

While writing about how Detroit's brands could bring cars back to an SUV-saturated market, I had a minor epiphany. Could Stellantis use a trans-Atlantic twinning strategy to both bolster the nearly-invisible Chrysler brand and add affordable cars to their US portfolio?

In 2013, Reuters reported on General Motors plans to essentially twin their U.S./China Buick brand and their European Opel/Vauxhall brand, a "strategy that could shave development costs and time, and increase their respective product offerings in major global markets." That resulted in the Opel/Vauxhall Astra, Insignia, Mokka and Cascada being sold by Buick in the U.S.

Right now, Chrysler exists as one product: the Pacifica minivan. In Europe, Opel/Vauxhall offers the Astra compact sedan, hatchback, and wagon, as well as the Frontera and Grandland compact SUVs. And, with Stellantis' multi-energy strategy, you get your choice of EV, ICE, or hybrid power on the STLA Medium platform.

Later this year, we'll see an updated Pacifica, and we've been promised an electric SUV and a sedan derived from the Halcyon concept. But Chrysler's design language appears to be in a state of flux; we know the Airflow concept shown a few years ago isn't happening. When CEO Chris Feuell came on board in 2003, she "wanted a statement that had literally zero to do with anything that you have seen today, even the Airflow concept car." 

So perhaps the time is right to merge Opel/Vauxhall's aesthetic with that of Chrysler to address issues of both brand-building and affordability. With the STLA Medium-based Jeep Compass coming to their Belvidere plant here in 2028, Stellantis could theoretically build other STLA Medium entries for the U.S.

Is this crazy? Or is there a germ of an idea here? Discuss...