The profile

Carlos Tavares, an ambitious manager with a passion for cars and brands to save

The former Stellantis number one from Portugal has a career that began in Renault and continued in Psa

by Mario Cianflone

1 December 2024

Carlos Tavares, in una conferenza stampa al salone di Parigi

4' min read

Key points

Psa's remediation
Merger
L’eredità

4' min read

A career in the automotive industry: from Renault and Nissan, to Psa, of which he was the architect of the relaunch, especially of the Peugeot brand. Carlos Tavares, now resigned, is the manager who effectively created Stellantis just three years ago, bringing together two groups that could not stand alone in an automotive world heading towards consolidation: the Italo-American Fca, alias Fiat Chrysler, and the French Psa, which brought Peugeot, Citroën, Ds and even the German Opel.

A Portuguese, 66 years old, he began his career at Renault, fresh from his engineering degree at the École Centrale Paris, and among his first major assignments was leading the development of a key car for the French brand: the second series of the Mégane. From the outset, Tavares showed a marked tendency to leapfrog and rise through the ranks and his career developed at Nissan, Renault's Japanese ally, and he became the dauphin of Carlos Ghosn, head of Renault and the alliance. Relations with Ghosn, whose career ended ingloriously with his arrest in Japan in 2018, will grow from very close to increasingly strained. Tavares, who has become Chief Operating Officer of Renault, does not hide, even publicly, his ambition to become CEO of a car manufacturer. This created an irremediable rift with Ghosn, and since he had no chance of becoming number one of the French-Japanese conglomerate, he resigned at the end of August 2013.

Psa's remediation

His career at Psa began the following year, in 2014, when he became CEO and chairman of the board of the transalpine giant. His managerial methods are decisive and dedicated to always pursuing a goal: reducing costs, making margins while keeping the product central to his strategies. Tavares is indeed a car guy lent to financial management. And he is a great fan of cars, sports cars and rallies.

He managed to restore the group's health after years of losses, putting the main brand Peugeot and also Citroen back on track. And this by virtue of the decision to focus on group modular architectures (the famous Cmp developed with former Chinese partner Dongfeng). Under his leadership, the Ds brand was created (probably the least well-chosen choice of his career), and in 2017 he pulled off a masterstroke: he bought the German Opel from GM, which was in dire straits.

The merger

2019, just before Covid, marks the start of the merger between Psa and Fca, which in 2021 will materialise in the birth of Stellantis, a mainly French-led conglomerate with 14 brands, some of which have made history: Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Jeep, Peugeot, Citroën, Opel to which the Chinese brand Leapmotor has recently been added.

Now Carlos Tavares' adventure is drawing to a close, after months of bitter confrontations with the Italian government, which accuses Stellantis of not doing enough in Italy, and heated round tables with journalists at trade fairs and new model launches.

L’eredità

But what is his legacy? Carlos Tavares has not managed to perform the miracle of governing a battleship that faces the most imposing perfect storm in the history of the car, the one that accelerated by an energy transition is putting even the Volkswagen groupin extreme difficulty these days. And not a few analysts wonder which big automotive multinational will go the way of Nokia with Chinese competition on the doorstep, falling sales and profit warnings multiplying.

Tavares, for his part, leaves a group with 15 brands, perhaps too many, but with a strategy in place to create new multi-energy and born electric platforms: two are already operational: STLA Medium and Large, a third, the Frame, was recently unveiled and the Small one for small cars is awaited. It is clear that not everything has gone as it should. Tavares, even at the Paris show last October, reiterated in response to a direct question from Sole 24 Ore that there is no intention to sell any of the brands. Now, however, with CAFE fines looming, things are likely to change and brands like Maserati could be sold. The year 2025 in the car industry promises to be crucial and a harbinger of big, if not very big, changes. And Tavares' vacant seat is already a sign. And on the horizon is perhaps the creation of the Airbus of the car, the mega consortium that would like Luca de Meo, ceo of Renault, but opposed by Tavares.

Carlos Tavares, career highlights

Born in 1958 in Lisbon, Portugal, Carlos Tavares was Chairman of the Management Board of Groupe Psa since March 2014, after joining in January of the same year, before taking charge of the foundation of Stellantis in January 2021.

Previously, he served as Chief Operating Officer of Renault from 2011 to 2013. Since 2009, he has also served as Executive Vice President, Chairman of the Management Committee Americas and President of Nissan North America, after joining Nissan in 2004.

Until December 2022 he was a member of the Board of Directors of the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (Acea)

In March 2022, Tavares presented the 10-year plan 'Dare Forward 2030'. In announcing the goal of achieving zero carbon emissions by 2038 with a 50% reduction by 2030,

Recently, discontent within the group's management had been reported from various quarters, and Tavares' public speeches had not failed to stir up controversy not only among trade union representatives but also among political forces, such as at his hearing in Parliament on 11 October.