Quality issues finally attracted the attention of senior management, Stellantis announced a major recruitment of 2000 new engineers

IT House, March 9 — Car manufacturers can continuously introduce new models, but if consumers develop an impression of “cheap or poor quality,” this reputation is often difficult to change in the long term. After a period of quality disputes, Stellantis has decided to hire approximately 2,000 engineers to address the issues. As a new lineup of models is about to launch, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares called this move a “deep reset.”

During the February earnings call, Carlos Tavares stated that Stellantis is restructuring internal processes to fix problems caused by past operational decisions: “We are readjusting our execution system and strengthening quality management processes to resolve operational issues stemming from previous decisions.”

On March 5, local time, according to AutoNews, Stellantis has elevated quality issues to the core agenda of management, with Chief Quality Officer Sebastian Yakey joining the Stellantis strategic leadership team. It is reported that Stellantis aims to strengthen quality management within the core strategies of all brands in the group, and internal reforms ultimately need to be communicated to consumers through product performance.

IT House has learned that Stellantis’s recent quality performance has fluctuated significantly. In 2020, Dodge became the first domestic brand in the U.S. to rank first in J.D. Power’s U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study, and it won again in 2023. However, Dodge fell to last place the following year, only rebounding to seventh place in 2025. Meanwhile, Chrysler and Ram both scored below average in the latest study. The study tracks the number of issues reported by owners within 90 days of purchase.