With more than a dozen brands under its expansive corporate umbrella, Stellantis is easily one of the world’s largest automotive conglomerates. While names like Dodge, Ram, Jeep, and Chrysler are all familiar to the average American driver, Stellantis also boasts a major presence in the international market, with some lesser-known brands that tend to fly under the radar in North America. Fiat, Maserati, and Alfa Romeo have all carved out a little market share here, but other Stellantis subsidiaries like Citroën, DS, Lancia, Opel, Peugeot, and Vauxhall might not ring a bell unless you spend a fair amount of time playing Gran Turismo or watching old Top Gear clips on YouTube. Each of these brands has made its way to U.S. shores at some point, and while they might not currently sell their vehicles in the North American market, they represent an important part of the Stellantis portfolio. What should you know about these relatively obscure Stellantis brands, and what are the chances they’ll eventually find their way across the pond? Read on as we explore the story behind Citroën, DS, Lancia, Opel, Peugeot, and Vauxhall, learn what each brand has to offer, and gauge the likelihood of a return to the U.S.
History
Before we dive into the details of Stellantis’ European portfolio, we should take a moment to explore the automaker’s recent history. Citroen, DS, Opel, Peugeot, and Vauxhall were acquired as part of a $50 billion merger in 2019 that saw Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and France’s Groupe PSA combine to become the industry’s fourth-largest automaker. Lancia had already been part of Fiat’s holdings since 1969. The FCA/PSA merger was envisioned as a way to help the North American brand expand its global presence and cut costs, but everything hasn’t exactly been going to plan over the last half-decade.
Stellantis might be a major presence in the modern market, but pure size doesn’t really translate to success in today’s ultra-competitive auto industry. The rise of EV brands and increasing competition from growing Chinese brands has led every major automaker to reassess their portfolio and priorities, and Stellantis is certainly no exception. The company faced a legitimate crisis in 2024, with net profits dropping by 50 percent and its stock losing 33 percent of its value between January and September. CEO Carlos Tavares signaled the company would consider shuttering some underperforming brands in response to the worsening outlook, but he was himself given the axe in late 2024. While cuts still seem likely, it’ll be up to Stellantis’ new, as-yet-unnamed CEO to right the ship and decide the fate of the company’s many brands.
Citroën
Founded: 1919
Country of Origin: France
Specialty: Mass-market cars, crossovers, and SUVs
Few brands have had quite as much of an impact on the modern auto market as France’s Citroën. The brand pioneered the unibody construction method in 1934 with the debut of the Traction Avant, which was also one of the first vehicles to feature a four-wheel independent suspension and front-wheel drive.
Every car and crossover SUV on the road today owes a debt of gratitude to Citroën, but the company’s automotive innovations don’t stop there. Citroën also brought the first hydropneumatic suspension system to the market in 1950 and has earned no shortage of praise for its innovative efforts. Of course, sometimes it’s possible to be a little too innovative. While the French automaker did offer its wares on the U.S. market from 1949 to 1974, the Citroën SM’s height-adjustable suspension system wasn’t able to comply with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s new bumper height regulations for 1974. This regulatory factor, along with low sales, led Citroën to throw in the towel and pull out of the U.S. market.
The company has found a lot more success on home soil, ranking as a perennial contender in the European Car of the Year Awards. Citroën took home the crown in 1971 and 1990 and logging a third-place finish in 2025 for the C3/e-C3, a supermini five-door hatchback that, along with the C5 X mid-size crossover SUV, is one of the brand’s best-selling models.
DS
Founded: 2014
Country of Origin: France
Specialty: Luxury hatchbacks and SUVs
Originally created as a premium sub-brand of Citroën in 2009, DS has grown into its own entity since spinning off from its big brother in 2014. The DS name is a nod to the original Citroën DS, a mid-engine, front-wheel drive executive car that was the first mass-produced model with disc brakes when it first hit the market in 1955. While the ‘50s DS was short for “desirée spéciale” (which was pronounced like déesse, or “goddess.”), the new DS branding is supposedly short for “Different Spirit.”
Whatever you want to call it, DS has lived up to its high-falutin moniker with a series of luxury vehicles that offer a more opulent alternative to the average Citroën model. The DS 3 supermini and DS 7 Crossback compact luxury SUV are two of the brand’s most popular vehicles, carefully embracing the futuristic, adventurous spirit for which the DS brand has long been known. Citroën did offer the original DS in the U.S. from 1956 to 1972, but the executive car simply didn’t live up to the lofty expectations of American luxury buyers with its lack of horsepower along with other common amenities like an automatic transmission, air conditioning, and power windows. Stellatnis did hint that the DS brand could return to North America back in 2016, but those rumors have become a little less persistent over the last decade, and now seem downright improbable given Stellantis’ current cost cutting.
Lancia
Founded: 1906
Country of Origin: Italy
Specialty: Luxury and rally cars
Often called “The Detroit of Italy,” Turin has long served as the heart of the country’s automotive industry. Fiat was one of the first brands to plant its roots in the fertile soil of the Piedmont region in 1899, sowing the seeds for the birth of Lancia just seven years later. Founded by Fiat racing drivers Vincenzo Lancia and Claudio Fogolin, Lancia has long promoted a dual focus that includes both luxury and rally models. Lancia has competed in some of the world’s foremost motorsports events and series, including Formula One, the Mille Miglia, and the World Endurance Championship, but the rally circuit is where the Italian company has really made its name. Lancia was a fixture in the early days of the World Rally Championship (WRC), earning constructors’ titles in 1974, ‘75, ‘76 and ‘83, as well as a legendary run that saw the brand notch six consecutive wins between 1987 and 1992. The automaker withdrew from the WRC following the 1993 season, but remains the most winning brand in the competition’s history, with 11 total Championships and 15 European Championships. Impressive motorsport legacy aside, past performance is often not indicative of future results in the auto industry. Lancia has steadily downsized its lineup ever since being acquired by the Fiat Group in 2007, replacing many of its homegrown creations with rebadged versions of existing Chrysler models like the 300 and the 200 convertible, which became the Thema and Flavia respectively. Lancia has since discontinued these Chrysler-based models, leaving the company with a sole offering in the supermini Ypsilon. While it might be a little lonely in the one-car lineup, the Ypsilon has found plenty of success in the domestic market and was even Italy’s second best-selling car in 2019. An all-electric version of the Ypsilon has continued to drive sales, but given the U.S. market’s increasing EV saturation and flagging sales, it’s hard to imagine Lancia’s flagship arriving anytime soon.
Vauxhall/Opel
Founded: 1857/1862
Country of Origin: UK/Germany
Specialty: Mass-market cars and SUVs
Opel and Vauxhall share an interesting and intertwined history. While Opel was originally founded as a sewing machine manufacturer and Vauxhall was a producer of pumps and marine engines, the two brands have come a long way in the last 160 years. Each brand was once its own separate entity with its own focus. Vauxhall specialized in the luxury segment, while Opel offered a more affordable product as the first German company to embrace the mass-production assembly line.
That all changed when General Motors bought out the Vauxhall and Opel brands in the 1920s and ‘30s. The American auto giant moved to a more mid-market approach, steadily downsizing each company’s lineup in an attempt to reduce R&D and assembly costs. Since the 1980s, the two brands have been virtually indistinguishable, with Vauxhall and Opel essentially offering the same vehicles under two different names. This approach didn’t change when GM sold the two companies to Groupe PSA in 2017, as evidenced by the fact that the supermini Corsa and compact Astra are sold by both Vauxhall and Opel. Each company has vowed to go all electric by 2028, and are already making steady progress with the debut of hybrid and BEV Frontera, as well as EV versions of the Corsa, Astra and other models. Opel and Vauxhall models have both been available in the U.S. in the past, but there aren’t any convincing murmurs of a return to the North American market as far as we can tell.
Peugeot
Founded: 1810
Country of Origin: France
Specialty: Mass-market cars, crossovers, and SUVs
They say practice makes perfect, and Peugeot has definitely had plenty of time to practice. Established in 1810, the French company is one of the oldest car brands in the world, with the company’s founding preceding the invention of the first practical automobile by some 75 years. From saws and other hand tools to coffee grinders and petticoats, Peugeot was a jack-of-all-trades in its early years. The company began to focus on the transportation market in the 1880s when it started to produce bicycles and has never looked back.
Known for producing engaging vehicles, Peugeot was there at the birth of modern motorsport, competing in the original Paris-Rouen Trials all the way back in 1894. The company has since climbed almost every motorsports podium you can imagine, with a long history that includes successful stints in rally and endurance racing, as well as a brief foray into Formula One from 1994 to 2000. Another perennial winner of the European Car of the Year award, Peugeot has walked away with the title six times since 1969, with the subcompact 208 representing its most recent champion in 2020. The brand’s lineup currently consists of 17 models, ranging from smaller offerings like the 208 and 308 to a set of sedans, a stable of station wagons, vans, minivans, the Landtrek pickup and, of course, a bevy of crossover SUV models to choose from. Peugeot has placed an increased emphasis on electrification in recent years, offering hybrid or all-electric versions of almost all of its most popular vehicles.
It’s hard to tell what Stellantis’ current financial woes mean for Citroen, DS, Lancia, Opel, Peugeot, and Vauxhall. The company has floated the idea of bringing the DS brand to U.S. shores, but any attempt at expansion seems rather unlikely given the current climate at Stellantis HQ. Stellantis’ European brands simply don’t bring anything new to the table, with the exception of some supermini models that are unlikely to offer broad appeal in a traditionally size-centric U.S. market. Peugeot, Vauxhall, Opel, and Lancia have all made impressive strides in the EV segment, but their all-electric models could be a hard sell in a country where a lack of charging infrastructure and longer driving distances make their next-generation powertrains a harder sell. All of the brands on our list, with the exception of the relatively new, standalone DS label, have been sold in the U.S. at some point, so there is a bit of a precedent to go on, but any American driver looking to get behind the wheel of one of Stellantis’ European models shouldn’t hold their breath.
