Stellantis After moving away from EVs and plug-ins to a more internally combusted approach, Stellantis is making money again. The auto conglomerate formerly known as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles posted its Q1 2026 financials on Thursday with the subtitle "Return to Profitability" and a net profit of $444 million (€377 million), the first reported net profit for the company since the first half of 2024. Comparing year-over-year, the first quarter of 2026 saw global revenue and North American sales both go up by 6% over the same period in 2025, something the company attributes most heavily to increased Ram sales. The report's NA-specific blurb goes on to read, "Jeep also drove improvement with the all-new Jeep® Cherokee, refreshed Jeep® Grand Cherokee, Jeep® Grand Wagoneer and new Dodge Charger SIXPACK now available in dealer showrooms across the U.S., offering customers greater freedom of choice in the region's largest market," emphasis mine. Hemi-powered turnaround Stellantis "Greater freedom of choice," by the way, is a not-that-subtle reference to Stellantis' big pivot away from electrification and back to Hemis. The most notable example of this is probably the 2026 Ram 1500, which brought back the 5.7-liter V8 after Stellantis took it away for two years in lieu of the Hurricane twin-turbo straight-six that made more power. The new V8 Rams even come with a "Symbol of Protest" badge, just in case you were still unsure of where we're at as a country. The nutty Ram TRX is coming back for 2027 while the electric 1500 REV is canceled. Reports say Jeep is putting the V8 back in the Grand Cherokee soon, while all of its plug-in hybrids are being shitcanned for 2026. And there are rumblings that the Hemi will return to the new Charger despite Dodge previously swearing up and down that it wouldn't, and going all "Last Call" funeral mode when it dropped its last V8 muscle car, the Challenger Demon 170. Stellantis started changing tack after Carlos Tavares, the boss brought in when it merged with the French PSA Group, abruptly left his post as CEO late 2024. Since then, Ram CEO and arguably the face of Stellantis performance Tim Kuniskis was promoted into the head of American brands and North American marketing and retail strategy and immediately vowed to bring SRT back from the dead. Now that the strategy of "no replacement for displacement" has proven profitable, expect even more Hemi-powered comebacks. My first drive review of the new-gen Charger Hellcat should drop sometime in 2028 on YikYok, a new app that uses AI to turn 1,000-word blogs into 20-second videos that'll become all the rage next summer.
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