It’s already been a turbulent state of affairs over at Stellantis — and now the man at the helm has departed.
While now-former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares was already on his way out in 2026, matters have progressed to the point where he formally resigned from the company on December 1, with immediate effect. This latest development emphasizes the rough time Stellantis has had over the past several months, and Tavares’ departure calls into question what will happen as the automaker is already trying to navigate the future path of its fourteen brands and where it will compete as the industry shifts toward electrification in the coming years.
“Our thanks go to Carlos for his years of dedicated service and the role he has played in the creation of Stellantis,” said company chairman John Elkann, who accepted Tavares’ resignation Sunday.
Henri de Castries, Stellantis’ senior independent director, said that the resignation came from differing views among the stakeholders within the world’s forth-largest automotive manufacturer. “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.”
Tavares made headlines in recent months for a dramatic cost-cutting scheme, in which he mentioned under-performing brands would be axed from the company’s portfolio. That called into question the fate of anecdotally lackluster nameplates (in terms of financial performance, that is) under Stellantis’ umbrella, such as Chrysler and Maserati. Over the past several years, we’ve seen concepts of where each brand may be headed, but those ambitions have time and again been undercut by external market forces — particularly frosty consumer interest toward fully electric model lineups — and general indecisiveness among the powers that be about how, when, and in which market to devote the most resources.
To wit, Stellantis made plans to cut nearly 4,000 factory workers across its Detroit and Toledo, Ohio manufacturing facilities this year. To quite a piece from The Detroit News: “Morale is horrible.”
So, what will happen next?
Particularly in North America, Stellantis and its dealers have been duking it out over problems with ballooning prices and swelling inventory due to those high prices. Dealers specifically blamed Tavares’ mismanagement, at least in substantial part, for the company’s recent woes. As such, they are ready to move forward with a new leader in place.
For the time being, though, there won’t strictly be one CEO at the helm. Instead, chairman John Elkann will lead an “Interim Executive Committee” to navigate Stellantis through the coming weeks. Elkann says that committee will appoint a new CEO in 2025.
The longer-term question — will this functionally change Stellantis’ long-term plans, especially with mainstays in North America like Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram — could ride on the actions of the committee and the new CEO, whomever that is. To ensure some semblance of stability over the interim period, Elkann said that, “Together we will ensure the continued deployment of the Company’s strategy in the long-term interests of Stellantis and all its stakeholders.”
That statement aside, Tavares’ relatively abrupt departure from the company is a sign that “steady as she goes” is not going to right the ship, and Stellantis’ other major players know that. We likely won’t see status quo, then, but we’ll have to wait and see exactly what will happen in terms of the company’s long-term plans (and its short-term ones, as well) over the next few weeks.
