Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares resigns

The Stellantis board announces that it has accepted the resignation of Carlos Tavares as CEO of the company which includes brands like Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroën, Dodge, DS Automobiles, FIAT, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Ram, and Vauxhall.

A new CEO will be appointed in the first half of next year. The process of appointment is managed by a Special Committee of the board, and until a new CEO is instated a new Interim Executive Committee will be established and chaired by John Elkann, already the president of the board and a representative of the Agnelli family, the largest Stellantis shareholder.

Tavares basically created Stellantis through the merger between PSA Peugeot-Citroen and FCA Fiat Chrysler in 2021. The combined company is the world's fourth largest automaker. However, his penchant for cost-cutting apparently hasn't endeared him to workers, his aggressive and adversarial attitude towards governments (especially the Italian one) hasn't endeared him to those, and his insistence on pushing very aggressively in the EV direction allegedly hasn't endeared him to the board of Stellantis, which might prefer a more cautious strategy so as not to endanger margins and dividends.