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Stellantis Will Adapt Dealership Network to Work as If It Offered Direct Sales

One of the issues with being a legacy automaker is that you can’t simply tell your dealership network goodbye to adopt direct sales as Tesla did. They will sue you for trying to sell at lower costs than they do. Volkswagen is trying to solve that with what it calls the “agency model.” Stellantis will adopt the “retailer model,” but it is basically the same thing.
Alfa Romeo Dealership 6 photos
Photo: Stellantis
Stellantis BrandsOpel DealershipAlfa Romeo DealershipCitroën DealershipPeugeot Dealership
Instead of buying cars from the automaker and trying to sell them, dealerships will just be responsible for selling, delivering, and servicing them. That saves these companies all the expenses with keeping the cars in inventory. On the other hand, profit margins are lower and fixed, which means prices should be the same online or on dealerships, regardless of how much you search for a more attractive deal.

For customers, the experience will be very similar to that Tesla offers with its direct sales model. It will be a seamless process, whether online or at the shops. Customers who buy vehicles online will have to choose a dealership where to pick their cars or who will be responsible for the delivery. That automatically grants the chosen showroom the commission they would have if they had sold the vehicle independently.

Apart from the more predictable experience for customers, that also helps Stellantis’ car brands to avoid the laws that prevent direct sales from automakers. Tesla had to change the law in multiple U.S. states to be able to sell directly to customers. In Texas, where it is building a factory, it did not manage to do that, which creates the weird situation of now being able to sell its cars in the same place it builds them.

According to Automotive News, Stellantis’s dealerships currently receive around 9% in commissions. With the retailer model, they will get something between 4% to 5%. The company is now trying to show dealers may earn even more money thanks to fewer expenses in storage, distribution, and discounts to get rid of vehicles people would not consider unless they were cheaper.

Experts in dealerships say this is one of the most significant sales model changes they have ever seen, even if it is limited to a few brands. Alfa Romeo, Lancia, and DS will be the first to try that, along with the LCV branch of the business for Citroën, Peugeot, Opel, and Vauxhall. If everything goes as planned, it will be expanded to the other Stellantis brands by 2026.
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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
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Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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