Chrysler is a well-known car brand in North America. The CEO is talking about how the brand plans to sell cars in Canada and what changes drivers should expect.
BYD is a Chinese company that makes electric cars. The episode says people in Canada are already starting to recognize the brand, even before it’s officially selling here.
The unemployment rate measures the share of the workforce that is jobless and actively seeking work. The episode ties a higher unemployment rate to increased buyer caution, since job insecurity can reduce big-ticket spending like new cars.
They own many different car brands worldwide. That means each brand has to compete for attention and resources, but they’re all managed under one company.
An investor day is when a company updates investors on what it plans to do next. It’s like a big strategy presentation for people who fund the company.
A “refresh face” means the car gets a new look. It’s usually changes to the front styling so it looks newer, even if the car isn’t completely redesigned.
Regulatory requirements are government rules that affect vehicle design and development, such as emissions standards and safety regulations. The speaker notes that development decisions must account for regulation as well as consumer options, and still have to make business sense.
This just means the company has to be sure the project will pay off financially. They’re talking about balancing development costs with expected sales.
Volume here means the number of vehicles sold, which impacts whether fixed development costs can be spread out across enough units. The speaker says they need sufficient volume to overcome investment and justify product development for multiple markets.
Affordability just means whether people can realistically buy a car without it being financially out of reach. They’re talking about what Chrysler can do to help lower the burden on shoppers.
Electrification means cars are moving away from gas-only engines and toward electric power. That can be fully electric cars or cars that use electricity in addition to gas.
Flex production means the factory can change what it builds depending on what customers want and what incentives are available. Chrysler is saying they can adjust for Canada vs the U.S.
Trevor Longley is the person leading the company’s Canada operations. The CEO says he stays in close contact with dealers and brings that information back.
A facelift is a refresh of the car—usually changes to the look and sometimes new features. They’re saying the Pacifica will be updated for the next model year.
The speaker emphasizes the test drive as the best way to evaluate a vehicle’s interior comfort and overall feel. For listeners, this highlights that spec sheets don’t fully capture how a minivan or performance sedan actually behaves day-to-day.
They mean all-wheel drive is included on the car by default. That can help you grip the road better in winter conditions, without having to pay extra for it.
They’re saying AWD isn’t included on every version, but you can choose it. If you live where it snows, you’ll want to make sure you pick the AWD option.
LIVE
Hi everyone and welcome to the April 17th, 2026 episode of the Automotive News Canada
podcast. I'm your host Greg Lason, the digital and mobile editor at Automotive News Canada,
coming to you from just outside Windsor, Ontario, the automotive capital of Canada.
Today on the show I'm joined by new Chrysler and Dodge brand CEO Matt McAleer. He's here
to talk about what Canadian dealers and consumers can expect from the two brands moving forward.
He talks new product, affordability and more. But first, a look at some of the top Canadian
automotive stories of the week. The Chinese automaker hasn't even sold a vehicle in Canada,
but buyers already recognize BYD. A new AutoTrader.ca survey shows 12% of EV shoppers recognize the
brand ahead of some of the most established players. And interest in Chinese brands is there.
More than half of Canadians considering an EV say they would look at a Chinese model driven
largely by price. That comes as Ottawa opens the door to China made EV imports next year,
setting up a potential market shakeup. But concerns remain with about half of those buyers wary
of their data being handled by a Chinese brand. On the automaker front, Stellantis Canada says
there is hope after a decade of declining sales. CEO Trevor Longley says the automaker
will grow this year after years of shrinking market share and strained dealer relationships.
The early signs are there. First quarter sales rose nearly 15% to more than 30,000 new vehicles
even as the broader market slipped. The turnaround is being driven by new and refreshed products
including the return of the Jeep Grand Cherokee and a surge in minivan sales. But the strategy goes
deeper. Stellantis is resetting pricing, rebuilding dealer trust and focusing on long term growth,
not quick gains. After years of decline, the company says it finally has turned a corner.
Finally, in retail news, Canada's auto market cooled to start 2026, but not for the reasons
you might expect. First quarter sales slipped less than 1% to about 412,000 new vehicles
as demand returned to more normal levels. There was no rush to beat tariffs or grab EV rebates,
just steady showroom traffic. But pressure is building, higher oil prices rising costs and a
6.7% unemployment rate are weighing on buyers. At the same time, incentives and fuel prices
are pushing more Canadians toward electric vehicles and affordability is reshaping decisions.
Buyers are shifting to smaller, lower priced SUVs chasing value as vehicle prices continue
to climb. And that's a look at some of the top Canadian automotive stories of the week.
You can find more on those and other stories at our website automotivenews.ca.
I'm now joined by Chrysler and Dodge CEO Matt McAleer.
Matt, thanks for joining me on the podcast this week.
Thanks so much for having me, Greg. I'm happy to be here.
Yeah, it's great to have you. Look, new to the roll, when you stepped into this roll,
what was the first thing on your sort of to-do list as the Chrysler brand CEO?
Well, I think the first thing that came to my mind was how do we get people excited about
the Pacifica again and start growing sales? It's a growing segment and it was a vehicle that I was
part of when we launched Pacifica in 2016. Back then, when it was the all-new minivan on the
all-new platform, a vehicle that I'm still extremely proud to be a part of and was just
super excited to be back involved and work with the Chrysler team and start the next 100 years of
Chrysler. Interesting. You said 100 years of Chrysler. I talk to dealers all the time who say
it's an iconic name, an iconic brand, and we know that Stellantis has several brands under its
umbrella in its portfolio. Is it safe to say Chrysler's here to stay for, as you just said,
another 100 years? Absolutely. I think there's a lot of excitement as we, you know,
Stellantis is still a young company. We're still, you know, five, six years into this merger.
We're still, as you said, we have 14 brands around the globe and, you know, you always want
to nurture all of them as fast as possible, but some things just take time and, you know, we've
got Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram that we're working on. Chrysler has an exciting future and one that
we're going to lay out in more detail here next month in May as we host an investor day for
Wall Street and other investors around the globe. And we're extremely excited. And, you know,
Pacifica is just the foundation and the start of that. And the new Pacifica with its refresh face
is getting a lot of attention and we're excited to get it out to the market here this summer.
So moving forward with Chrysler and the brand, is Canada getting a dedicated strategy for Chrysler
or are we still sort of downstream of U.S. decisions? You know, one of the biggest complaints
from dealers over the last 10 years or so has been, you know, nobody understands the North
American market and then nobody understands the Canadian market separately. And then within Canada,
there are clearly Quebec is different than the West, for example. I just wonder if Canada gets
a dedicated strategy or is part of the broader North American strategy?
Well, no, for Pacifica, Canada is absolutely part of the strategy and it always has been. I mean,
not only from the manufacturing at Windsor Assembly, but to our team over there that we work with
daily on, you know, making sure that they have their own product planning team that works to
bring the products to market and the pricing and the packaging that's successful in Canada. And as
we re-grew sales last year and to overtook the number one spot again in Pacifica, does that
we're done? Absolutely not. Do we have things to work on? Always. But Canada specifically
for Pacifica and Chrysler the brand is absolutely important to us. It's our number two market
and it's the only market we're currently selling in outside of the United States. So we look at
Canada, definitely not as a secondary market, but as our only other market and we treat it
just as importantly and we work with Trevor and the team over there all the time to figure out
how we can get better. In terms of product news, you mentioned May. Product plan comes out.
Chrysler currently offers the Grand Caravan in Canada only. That is for Canadians. I remember
the Canada value package Grand Caravan. Will that plan in May include additional Chrysler models
or trims specifically for Canadians as the Grand Caravan is? Will there be other tweaks
or other trims coming to just Canada? Nothing that we're going to disclose at this time. I mean the
plan in May is not only for Chrysler but for Stellantis as a whole is to lay out what the future
looks like for many of our brands and the evolution and the development of those products as far as
progress down the development cycle. We'll determine at that time if the Canadian needs
greatly differ from the US needs and the other markets is that something that we can invest in.
And it really just comes down to no different than if you were doing it yourself. Does it
make dollars and cents? Get it boxed. A lot of times development of things not only from regulatory
but consumer options. They have to make business sense. They have to box. We have to have enough
volume to overcome the investment and make it make sense. And a lot of times we try and do
what's best for both markets and where we can. Do we always get it right? Not out of the gate,
but we're always listening and always improving. I had your predecessor on Chris Fuel months ago
and at that time she had said that cars are a possibility for the Chrysler brand. They were
aware of the affordability issue. Are there more products? I'm not asking you to name and
specifically segment what is coming, but are there other products that are coming to the
Chrysler brand for Canadians or North Americans? Yeah, and that's what we're going to talk about
in May. We're absolutely looking at the future of the brand and the brand is more than just
Pacifica, more than just a minivan brand. And we're looking at what makes the most sense in
the coming years as the market evolves and whether that's cars or UVs or a combination of both.
But we're absolutely studying that and we're excited about what the future holds.
Vehicle affordability is still a serious issue, not just in Canada, but in the United States as
well. It was brought up in DC at an auto show there during a panel. I just wonder what the
Chrysler brand is doing specifically to address affordability. Are price cuts on the way? Are
incentives on the way? What specifically can be done for the consumer in terms of affordability?
Well, I think there's a lot of things in the works and I think Trevor and the team over in our
Canadian offices have some plans in place as well that they'll probably be laying out here in the
near future. But affordability is something that we're always working to improve upon. And
you hit the nail on the head. It's not just a Canadian issue or a challenge. It's a
U.S. issue and a U.S. challenge. And it's not just a Chrysler issue. It's an industry issue.
It's a Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram issue that we're focused on. We've acknowledged that in the past
with our National Dealer Council and it's something that unfortunately you can't turn the
light switch and you can't bring the products to market overnight. But we recognize it. We're
working on moving forward and how do we compliment the current brands we have and we bring more to
the showroom and more price points. Long before you took over as the brand CEO electrification was
at the forefront of Chrysler's sort of future that it was going to be all electric or there were
going to be more electric offerings at least. What is the electric future of the Chrysler brand
as you and I chat today? Well, I think electrification in general is one of those things
that obviously we've seen a tremendous shift in the industry over the past year with the changes
in the regulatory and even in the U.S. and Canada both. And Canada's regulatory is evolving as we
speak and bringing incentives back to the Indic-Quebec and at a federal level that we're working
to satisfy demand with some of our EVs. One of the things I'm most excited about is coming out of
that we developed and we launched the BEV, the 100% battery electric vehicle on the charger platform
first. Now we're focused on the six-pack twin-turbo gasoline-powered engines as we ramp up production
on those. In this moment in time, we are focused on the gas production. At the same time, we are
still working to bring the new 27-mile-a-year charger BEV with the ability to use a Tesla
charging network. We are committed to the BEVs, but they are not the priority from a production
standpoint. Now, as that's current, as things evolve, as things evolve in Canada, maybe different
than the rate they evolve in the U.S., we have the ability, it's a multi-energy platform that we can
shift production to meet demand. So as different provinces come on board or different federal
rebates come on, we can react differently for Canadian production than we can for the U.S.
Same thing in the U.S. If the East Coast and the West Coast adopt battery electric
continue to evolve battery electric technology quicker, we can ramp production very quickly
to meet that demand. And I think that's what we're excited about with this platform, is that we
haven't committed to one powertrain technology. We've committed to both and we can flex not just
this year, but in the coming years, because it's going to continue to change, especially as we see
things change in the regulatory landscape. You talk about Windsor, I wanted to ask you
about that. So let's jump into manufacturing for a quick question here. I just wonder how confident
are you that Windsor Assembly Plan will sustain the three-shift program long-term? You added
that shift in January, I believe it was, running a full steam. I talked to people who work there,
they've never been busier. How long can this continue at Windsor? What's sort of your confidence
level there? No, I think we're extremely proud of the fact that we were able to bring
the third shift back at Windsor Assembly. It's something that we are committed to.
It's something that we're still in the launch phase of the new charger. We're just starting
to get some of our entry-level 420 horsepower twin-turbo inline-sixes and the RT models,
two dealers around both the U.S. and Canada, as well as our four-door models going into the
summer. So we still have a lot of volume that we continue to ramp up. We're getting ready to
launch the 27 model year Pacific and we're working on some different packages as we move forward.
So I think we're extremely bullish on that and we'll do everything we can to support it from
a sales volume standpoint to continue to sustain growth to support it. From the shop floor to the
showroom floor, have you spoken with Canadian dealers since taking the role and if you have,
what are they telling you? I work very closely with Trevor Longley, the CEO of Canada,
and talk with him weekly. He has his pulse on the Canadian dealers. He's the voice of our
Canadian market with his team and our business centers around the country. I'm very open to
talking with the Canadian dealers. I've met with their National Dealer Council in the past,
but it's something right now that Trevor and I are very close and keep close contact as well
as his team. So I keep my pulse on what's going on, but rely on him at the end of the day to
deliver what's best, not just for Chrysler and Dodge, but also for Ram and Jeep and Fiat and Alpha
Romeo. Has he mentioned any concerns or suggestions or complaints, if you will, from dealers in
Canada? What are they saying to Trevor that's being relayed to you? At the end of the day,
we work very closely with our dealer bodies, both in the US and Canada. It's a relationship that is
always pushing each other to do better. We are always looking for them to grow their business,
and they're always looking at us to help them grow their business and support them with the right
product, the right pricing, the right incentives, the right messaging, and that's what we're always
focused on that. At the end of the day, they are looking forward to a renewed plan for Chrysler,
and that's what we're looking forward to laying out here in May next month.
We just ended the first quarter. Minivan sales in Canada, Pacifica sales,
more than 4,000 of them in the first three months. A sales increase, I think, was 256%.
What's going on there? Was it Canada-specific pricing? Were there incentive strategies behind
this surge? Was it people moving down segment from larger SUVs to minivans? Can you put your
finger on what happened to make it such a successful first quarter? I think it's a commitment not only
from the Canadian dealers and the teams to get out and showcase the Pacifica and its terrific
capabilities. It's some of the incentive actions that we've taken. It's a segment and it's seen
growth as we evolve and we start to see more millennials come into parenting ages and we
start to see a shift in some of the demographics and the willingness to, quite frankly, do what's
easiest and best for themselves, not necessarily worried about what the neighbors down the street
are driving or what they're saying. We're seeing this resurgence and this movement of,
you know, we don't care what others do. We're going to do what we want to do.
And these vehicles, as you know, absolutely are unlike anything else. And with Pacifica,
having the most standard safety features in the segment, having the only one with second-row
stow and go where all the seats can fold flat into the floor, it offers people something
that they can't get from any other vehicle in the industry. Couple that with the available
all-wheel drive and eight-passenger seating if you need it. There are things that make this vehicle
extremely unique and that's why we're so proud of it and we're excited about the
fresh new facelift as well as some of the additional safety and technology features that
we're adding for the 27 model year because Pacifica is unique in the marketplace and offers something
that you can't get from the other three minivans on sale. Got two questions that I want to end on
here. What would you say to a Canadian buyer who's not currently considering Chrysler or Dodge?
Here's your chance to tell them why they should. I would say at the end of the day,
go to a dealer, test drive them, put them on your shopping list for consideration. I think
the test drives alone will show not only the incredible interior to couple that with the exterior
styling but both of them. The charger has standard all-wheel drive. Your choice of 420 horsepower,
twin turbo inline six, 550 horsepower twin turbo inline six or 670 horsepower all-bev.
The unique thing about charger, you have all-wheel drive standard but you can with a push of a button,
you can send 100% of that power and torque to the rear wheels so you have the best of both worlds.
You have a hidden hatchback designed vehicle that acts like a UV from a cargo carrying standpoint,
standard all-wheel drive and a muscle car body with the ability to go to 100% rear-wheel drive.
There's nothing else quite like it. Go experience what that can do from you. It's no longer a niche
vehicle that's a secondary vehicle, especially in a Northern climate like Canada. It's a daily
driver. I drove it all year through the winter in Michigan and loved it. From the Pacifica standpoint,
again, the interior is absolutely stunning. The only vehicle in the industry with second-row
stone go, you can easily put both the second and third row flat on the floor, all-wheel drive
optional. Put it on your shopping list. I think you'll be impressed. Last question, what does
success for Chrysler and Dodge in Canada specifically look like over the next three to five years?
Well, I think it's simple from the standpoint of they have a defined spot on our showroom floors.
We have Rams that celebrate capability in trucks. You have Jeeps that are off-road in freedom.
You have Dodge that's muscle and power and performance. And you have Chrysler with this
renewed position that we're going to bring out here next month in May. They each are known for
exactly what they stand for, and they offer people something that are unique and different
than they can get from other manufacturers in the industry. Couple that with sales growth,
and we'll do our job. Matt, it was great to have you on the podcast. I appreciate it.
Thanks so much for having me. Absolutely. I'd like to thank Matt for his time. If you'd like to
be a guest on the show or have a suggestion or simply want to comment, email me at glason at
autonews.com. And remember, you can listen to all our previous podcasts on Spotify, iTunes,
Google Play, or on our website, automotivenews.ca. Just scroll to the podcast hub in the middle of
our homepage. And don't forget, you can follow Automotive News Canada on X, where we're at
Auto News Canada. And you can find me on X2 at G-Lacin, A-N-C. Finally, look for us on LinkedIn.
Just search Automotive News Canada. That does it for this episode of the Automotive News Canada
podcast. We hope you'll join us next time. So long, everybody.
About this episode
The show opens with a Canadian auto-news roundup: rising awareness of Chinese EV brands despite limited presence in Canada, Ottawa’s move to allow more China-made EV imports, and lingering data-privacy concerns. Stellantis Canada is seeing early signs of a turnaround after a decade of declines, helped by refreshed products and minivan momentum. Sales are slightly down overall, but demand is steadier than expected. The main interview features Chrysler and Dodge CEO Matt McAleer, who focuses on reviving Pacifica, Canada-specific priorities, affordability efforts, electrification plans, and confidence in Windsor’s third shift.
BYD brand recognition; Stellantis Brampton stalled; Q1 sales recap. Plus, new Chrysler and Dodge brand CEO Matt McAlear talks about what Canadian dealers and consumers can expect from the two brands. He also discusses new product, affordability, and more.
