Carlos Tavares Resigns as Stellantis CEO Amid Falling Sales
Carlos Tavares has resigned as CEO of Stellantis, the fourth-largest carmaker in the world. He planned to continue running the company, which he helped create by merging PSA Peugeot-Citroën and FCA Automobiles, through the end of his contract in 2026, but a disagreement with the board seemingly led him to quit.
“Stellantis’ success since its creation has been rooted in a perfect alignment between the reference shareholders, the board, and the CEO. However, in recent weeks, different views have emerged which have resulted in the board and the CEO coming to today’s decision,” explained Henri de Castries, the company’s senior independent director, in a statement. No further details were provided by Stellantis.
Predictably, leaks cast some light on what happened inside the boardroom. “There was a sense that Carlos was moving too fast to retrieve his reputation at the risk of creating problems in the future,” an anonymous insider reportedly familiar with the ex-CEO’s decision told The Financial Times.
Losing its CEO is the latest in a series of setbacks that Stellantis has faced in 2024. It has gone to great lengths to cut costs, including implementing layoffs all over the world, closing a Vauxhall plant in England, and even selling its 4000-acre proving grounds in Arizona. Slashing operating costs is one way to offset sliding sales, which dropped by 20 percent in the third quarter of 2024 versus the same period in 2023. Stellantis notably issued a profit warning in September 2024, and as of publication its shares are down by about 40 percent this year.
There’s no word on what’s next for Tavares, who turned 66 earlier in 2024. As for Stellantis, a new Interim Executive Committee chaired by John Elkann will run the group until it appoints a new CEO. Don’t look for a job offer on LinkedIn: the board of directors appointed a special committee to find a replacement for Tavares. No names have been floated yet, and Stellantis will announce its new CEO by the middle of 2025.
“Our thanks go to Carlos for his years of dedicated service and the role he has played in the creation of Stellantis, in addition to the previous turnarounds of PSA and Opel, setting us on the path to becoming a global leader in our industry,” said Stellantis chairman John Elkann.
Tavares, a life-long car enthusiast who competes in the Historic Monte-Carlo Rally, joined PSA from Renault, where he worked closely with Carlos Ghosn. He left Renault in 2013, became the CEO of PSA a year later, and played a significant role in creating Stellantis, which he has run since its inception in 2021.
I believe Sergio Marchionne was correct stating that more mergers were necessary to distribute the capital developing vehicles. Governments around the world have crippled automakers to divert spending into electric vehicles that will have effects long into this decade.
Sergio said that and I believe was correct. He was also running a cash-poor merger of weak players and needed another dance partner –so perhaps biased a tad.
Companies probably need to figure out how to be global and only be 3-5 giants. I think this means running brands in locales where they sell, a bit of badge-engineering if one compares markets, and razor-focus on sales niches without blurry overlap or competing with self.
From North Amercian perspective you have the big truck brands: Ford, GM, Ram, Toyota and I suppose Nissan. It would be bizarre for GM to sell off one of the twins (but who knows). Maybe VW is taking Scout into full size pickup-not sure.
Then you have the big SUV/lifestyle sellers. Everybody has something… but anybody but Ford would likely profit from taking over Jeep (Ford Bronco line, Explorer and Ranger/Maverick cover all the high points of Jeep lineup and sell well already).
Cars you have huge gaps and Toyota, VW, Honda and like owning whole segments.
Ford + Honda, GM + Hyundai/Kia, Geely + Stellantis, Toyota I’m not sure is missing segments really now that they are making some performance models again, Subaru + Nissan or whatever remixes end up being.
Some will of course want Ford + GM + former Chrysler assets but that road kills most of the brands (Geely-Dodge probably makes some cool Chargers –Ford would just do Mustangs). It will be interesting to see which governments interfere (why Hyundai & Kia are together for example) –such as do all the Japanese companies become Toyota?
There will be more deaths than mergers. The problem is often the companies that merge are two on their death beds.
More healthy companies like Hyundai and GM or Honda will partner on platforms of models.
Stellantis is the result of a number of failing companies.
The one to watch is Ford. The family own the majority and the question is will they find their way out with a partner or will they cash out? It could be historic.
Ford really took a hit on their trucks. They went to Aluminum and the prices went up on Aluminum after the move. Then they still owe on loans to the banks and may still own a billion to the energy department. Yes they did take a government loan hidden in the energy department.
The real danger is the Chinese come in and dump their cars on the market. People buy what they can afford even it it is crap.
The auto union deals are killing too. The automakers are making money but expenses and development costs are also at record highs.
The UAW will pay with a loss of many jobs. I would not be surprised if the VW plant in TN dies. They voted in the union and those jobs can go to Mexico or South America very easy. Heck I was driving an Audi and I looked it was made in Mexico.
Iacocca once said “never put two number twos together to make a number one,” ’nuff said.
He killed the cars we like (that use Hemis) and replaced them with ones we don’t like (Hornet). Huge marketing mistake. A reminder that every company that has ever owned Jeep has went out of business..
Whenever the team starts doing badly, right or wrong, fire the coach.
Look he may not have been the greatest leader but he was given a sack of crap and challenging times for any automaker.
The French companies were not doing well to start. Dumping FCA on them did nothing to help the situation.
Chrysler has declined since Daimler. While they did bring the platform for a RWD car they eliminated all the small cars and added no small CUV models of any value.
Then the bail out and Fiat. Giant was as damaged as Chrysler. Chrysler was making money but in place of building better Chryslers he dumps the money into Alfa and Maserati.
Sergio then gives Chrysler reworked Fiats that fail. Chryslers profits were wasted.
This leads to the present partnership that has not helped anyone.
I know some pine for the Hemi cars but they will not save the company as they did not before. For every Hellcat sold 10 300’s were sold at no or very little profit.
The company needs a line of affordable quality CUV models. This is where the profits are.
GM came with the new Trax. They wanted a roomy CUV that got better mpg and could be sold cheaper. They made a new FWD only platform that was cheaper to build and lighter. This model and the sister Buick has been a home run.
The Trail Blazer still carry’s on with a smaller platform that is heavier for the AWD sales.
We will see many more companies with issues. More mergers, partnerships and yes failures. Today just making money is not enough they must max return on investments in new products.
Just look at the stock prices. While Hyundai, GM and Toyota have good values while most of the rest are $15 or less per share. It is down right scary.
The keys today are to build a quality car people can afford. This is the keys to survival not $100k Jeeps. Even the few companies that are doing better are still at risk yet. The next 5-10 years will be tough and will see more major changes than in the last 50 years.
A CEO with those teeth HAS to be suspect.
The crazy CFO he installed takes it though.
He took Dodge Ram and Jeep and flushed them down the toilet. It will take a decade to recover, if ever.
On the bright side, he could have done what Jag did. Safe at first isn’t so bad looking back.
Teeth…muh-ah-ha-ha! I would however LOVE to have or just drive a Stratos!!!
We all need to understand the Euro crowd has controlled Chrysler for a while now. Three different groups. They sack the profits to bail out their poorly run companies and really don’t care if Chrysler lives or dies.
The Germans killed the smaller affordable cars for the larger cars and trucks and took the profits.
Fiat took the truck and Jeep profits to bail out Fiat, Alfa and Maserati. How did that work out?
Now the present group is no better off than Fiat. They are taking the cash from Chrysler and not putting anything back in. None of their products will be good for future regulations. They have little in affordable for the average buyer.
My in laws bought a 300 because they got it for the price of a Malibu. That sounds great but I can be sure for what they paid Chrysler made little to nothing on the deal. They got a good buy but now there is no 300 to return to.
They have no really good Turbo 4 or three cylinder to compete in todays market and meet emissions and MPG regs.
Sergio set Chrysler on the path to destruction and Carlos is here to monitor its passing.
Europe could care less about Chrysler and it may be too late to save them. Jeep may get bounced to another country to build them or sold off to China or someone like that. The trucks will die. No one cares about he mini van anymore.
The new Charger will not match the last in sales. The EV program is not going to help either.
While everyone bragged on the Powerful cars I warned they are not going to save the company,. Same with all the Raptor stuff at Ford. Cool trucks but they don’t pay the bills or dividends.
This has been a merger of equal failures to rephrase the Daimler merger of long ago. Too many companies making the same stuff with a different wrapper but doing it poorly. Stellantis looks like the name for bad prescription drug side effects.
I believe fired would be the correct headline.