KUALA LUMPUR: Stellantis is poised to double its dealers in Malaysia to 30 by the end of this year after achieving a significant milestones just over 100 days of operation since last March.

With a total of 14 dealers it currently has in Peninsular Malaysia, the French-Italian-American carmaker plans to expand to Sabah and Sarawak. It will start with Sabah in the current quarter.

Stellantis Malaysia managing director Jamie Morais said dealers are given some level flexibility this year to make the needed renovations and upgrade works.

Next year will see changes as all dealerships will be standardised and carry the same brand corporate image, reflecting the company's core values of customer centricity.

"We believe this will strengthen the brands local presence as well as give customers the confidence that Stellantis and Peugeot are here to stay," Morais told Business Times.


Since the formation of its national sales company (NSC) in March, it has taken over managing the sales, aftersales and brand marketing of Peugeot from the previous distributor.

"We are  proud to share that the aftersales team has successfully worked on reducing 7,000 open part line items to 499 which is a 93 per cent decrease. We also took ownership of over 2,500 open cases and successfully reduced it 95 per cent to 117 cases," Morais said.

He added that the call centre team continues growing and expanding to cater to the customers and offer efficient service.

According to him, it now has 13 personnels from five previously which improved the unanswered call rates from 53 per cent to 2.0 per cent.

On sales, Morais said Stellantis Malaysia had seen an increase of more than 100 per cent month-on-month (MoM).

This was led by the all-new locally assembled (CKD) Peugeot 408, which was launched in April this year, apart from other Peugeot models that are available.

"We want to continue capitalising on the momentum by ensuring we have a healthy order bank and stocks to meet customer demands as we believe the current Peugeot models cater to the current market trends of crossovers and SUVs," he added.

"Due to high traffic and interest at the Malaysian Autoshow, we want to continue the momentum and ensure we have attractive sales activations to continuously engage with our customers," he said.

Leveraging Stellantis renowned brand name as the world's fourth largest automaker with 14 marques under its portfolio, Morais said it is an exciting time for Malaysia as one of the company's objectives is to revive iconic brands under it.

"First, we have Leapmotor, which is set to launch in the fourth quarter of this year. This will be our first brand to sell only electric vehicles (EV) for the Malaysian market.

"We will bring in Leapmotor C10, which uniquely sits in its own segment and is Leapmotor's first global model," he said.

Leapmotor C10 is a D-segment SUV, an affordable EV car that has a battery range of up to 420km (WLTP).

Additionally, Stellantis plans to reintroduce French car Citroën to make continental cars accessible to the Malaysian consumers, which currently unavailable in the market, he said.

As inflation and declining currency are expected to increase prices, Morais assured that customers are prioritised and hence, the company continues to ensure the offerings remain competitive in the Malaysian market.

Looking forward, he said Stellantis Malaysia will open a regional parts hub soon that is expected to improve and streamline the parts distribution in Malaysia and the region.

What a cheeky Poll

https://www.carscoops.com/2024/08/we-asked-...-what-you-said/

We Asked You Which Stellantis Brands Should Die, These Are Your Picks
Jeep, Alfa Romeo and Peugeot are safe if you ever become Stellantis CEO, but there’s one legendary brand that’s ready for the chop

We asked which Stellantis brands should be axed; results overwhelmingly support preserving Jeep.
Chrysler brand was the firm you most wanted to see snuffed out, with DS coming in second.
We ran the poll after Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares warned of closing loss-making divisions

Most of the US brands under Stellantis only have a few models on sale. They should sell them off. Only Jeep should be retained.
Vauxhall and Opel sell the same cars with different names, should be merged as they do sell well in Europe.
They should ditch DS and make Citroen a premium brand like Peugeot instead of making it a cheaper brand.
Is Lancia still making any cars? Should sell off the brand and focus on Alfa and Maserati.
Abarth should be ditched as well and just go back to being a tuned version of Fiats.

Stellantis will indefinitely lay off up to 2,450 U.S. plant workers in Warren, Michigan, later this year as it discontinues production of an older version of its Ram 1500 pickup.

The company has not announced a vehicle to replace the truck.

The layoffs are expected to start as soon as October.

More planted than Geely's Galaxy E5 (Proton E.MAS) and VW ID4 ?!

Hmmmmmm.......

I tested it on track at SIC and it did impress me with its cornering ability and composure. Was just a short drive though but the multi-link rear and Maserati tuned suspension did work well.

This will be CKD at Gurun so will be a good choice to have since its a bigger D segment SUV.

Yes. It is huge too. Think Proton X90 but with better performance, handling and rear legroom. But the LEAP is a 5 seater compared to the X90's 7.

More planted than Geely's Galaxy E5 (Proton E.MAS) and VW ID4 ?!

Hmmmmmm.......

Lol the end words ... "Once upon a time China was asked to open up their market. Now it is the other way round"

How ironic 😏