It's a rare decision, but one worthy of note: Stellantis Japan has announced an official price cut across a wide range of models from this May 2025. No fewer than six of the Group's brands are affected, with discounts of up to 500,000 yen (around €3,000), including on the Alfa Romeo Tonale.
A desire to be "closer to the market
In an official press release, Jin Narita, President of Stellantis Japan, explains that this price revision was guided by the desire to offer "more accessible" products, in an economic context deemed uncertain. The objective is clear: to make the models more attractive and revive a sluggish sales dynamic.
Here are a few examples of the models concerned:
- Alfa Romeo Tonale MHEV: ¥250,000, or approximately €1,500
- Alfa Romeo Tonale PHEV: -500,000 ¥, i.e. -3,000 € approx.
- Fiat 600e: -300,000 ¥, i.e. -1,800 € approx.
- Jeep Avenger: -300,000 ¥, i.e. -1,800 € approx.
- Peugeot 2008 and 408 GT: - ¥200,000 to - ¥300,000, i.e. - €1,200 and - €1,800 approximately
- DS3: - ¥266,000, or - €1,600
A direct response to falling sales
Why such a drop? The answer is simple: sales plummet in Japan for most of the Group's brands.
Here's how registrations will evolve between 2021 and 2024:
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fiat | 6995 | 5768 | 4825 | 4564 |
| Alfa Romeo | 2341 | 1627 | 1671 | 969 |
| Citroën | 5894 | 4878 | 5109 | 2920 |
| Peugeot | 12072 | 8552 | 8126 | 5306 |
| Jeep | 14294 | 9871 | 10179 | 9633 |
| DS | 889 | 790 | 951 | 452 |
Alfa Romeo, Citroën and DS are particularly hard hit, with declines of close to -50 % over a single year. Even the well-established Jeep suffered a decline.
The Alfa Romeo case: same strategy as in the United States
The reduction applied in Japan is not an isolated case. In the United States, Stellantis recently made a massive reduction in its Tonale :
- PHEV version: -6,000 $
- Hybrid MHEV version: -4,000 $
A pricing offensive... and a sales alert
This price revision reflects Stellantis' more pragmatic strategy in Japan, with a view to winning back customers. It also underlines the Group's commercial fragility in this market.
Stellantis Japan's hope? That these new prices will enable the group's European brands to regain visibility in the face of overwhelming local competition. It remains to be seen whether this more aggressive policy will bear fruit in the months ahead.
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That's 4 years of arrogant, out-of-touch politics...
In Japan, electric vehicles are not very popular, with a market share of less than 2%. If, on top of this, the versatility of Stellantis models is limited (58kWh battery still not on the market, no one-pedal, charge programming function only just implemented, no plug & charge, no fast charge...), apart from the Fiat 500 it becomes very complicated. Considering that the 10 best-selling models in Japan are all Japanese, we can only claim to address a niche for lovers of originality.
I'd discussed it with Fiat, and in Japan electric cars aren't popular, and neither are manual gearboxes. You need combustion engines with automatic gearboxes. But Japan remains a very interesting market, as evidenced by the many Japanese visitors to italpassion 🙂
I don't doubt that there are Japanese enthusiasts of Italian cars, but it's a big step from there to offering an outlet beyond a few models a year. A new Fiat 124 would be interesting, if not the future 500 in manual gearbox (a Lupin III edition, anyone?). Maybe a few examples from Maserati, if you bother to go to the shows.
As long as the Fiat 500 has a manual gearbox, it won't work in Japan. So the future 500 hybrid is already compromised. On the other hand, it will be interesting to watch the Fiat Grande Panda when it goes on sale there. The first deliveries of the Fiat 600 hybrid started, if I understand correctly, this May 2025 in Japan.