Stellantis crisis, Tavares stays until 2026. Management revolution

Gregoire Olivier was appointed chief operating officer for China in addition to retaining his role as liaison officer of Leapmotor, due to his knowledge and experience in the Chinese market.

Santo Ficili becomes CEO of Maserati and Alfa Romeo and member of the Top Executive Team, thanks to his extensive knowledge of the automotive industry and business activities. The next appointment of Davide Grasso will be the subject of a further announcement.

With the aim of improving commercial performance, the supply chain organisation will be transferred from the Purchasing Division headed by Maxime Picat to the Manufacturing Division, under the leadership of Arnaud Deboeuf. Picat will devote even more attention to the performance improvements to be achieved by working with suppliers.

"In this Darwinian moment for the automotive industry," commented Tavares, "our duty and ethical responsibility is to adapt and prepare for the future, acting better and faster than our competitors, to offer sustainable, safe and affordable mobility. The new members of the leadership team will contribute to the determination of the whole team to face future challenges, strengthening and accelerating our transformation path to become the mobility tech company of reference. I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to laying the foundations for the future success of Stellantis".

John Elkann, Chairman of the Board of Stellantis, said: 'The Board of Directors has unanimously expressed its support for Carlos Tavares and the significant changes announced today. We are confident that the steps we have taken to streamline the organisation will strengthen our leadership team, which is committed to returning the company's performance to the top of the industry.

However, the company confirmed that the formal process to identify the next CEO, when Tavares leaves office at the end of his term, is already underway. This process, led by a Special Committee of the Board of Directors chaired by Elkann, will complete its work by the fourth quarter of 2025.

Just today, the Portuguese top manager will be for the first time in Parliament for a hearing at the House Production Activities and Senate Industry Committees. The manager, who did not shy away from the meeting, but rather stressed his willingness to cooperate, will take stock of Stellantis' progress. The main focus of attention will be the low production levels in Italy and the affair of the gigafactory in Termoli, Molise, with the postponement of the project for which the use of NRP funds was planned.

The news was not a thunderbolt, but the market remains sceptical. The share closed at -2.77%, below EUR 12, accentuating the decline since the beginning of the year (-44%).

"We believe that the focus, at least until the first half of 2025, remains on price pressure, inventory reduction, new model launches and cost base management," stressed the Equita analysts. The problems facing the group - the difficulties in the electric market, a complex automotive environment globally, various open issues in North America, declining sales - are not unique to Stellantis and will not be solved overnight.

According to the experts of Bernstein, Stellantis "has to solve four challenges: how to manage short-term excess inventory in the US, whether the US is a market with an adjusted Ebit margin of 10% or 15%, how to deal with strategic challenges in the EU market, and how to achieve the strategic goals for 2030. None of the management changes announced today signal an acknowledgement of these challenges'. Will the new team be up to the task? For the analysts of Akros 'it is possible that things will have to get worse before they can get better'.