Stellantis announced that its Chief Executive Carlos Tavares resigned on Sunday, two months after a profit warning at the maker of Jeep, Fiat and Peugeot cars that has lost around 40% of its value this year.
The company said it would seek to find a replacement CEO in the first half of 2025. Senior Independent Director Henri de Castries mentioned that different views emerged in recent weeks among major shareholders, the board and Tavares resulting in the CEO’s resignation.
Stellantis said in a statement on Sunday that its board, including Chairman John Elkann, accepted the CEO’s resignation “with immediate effect” and that a new interim executive committee, chaired by Elkann, would be established.
Previously regarded as one of the most respected executives in the auto industry, Tavares’ approach came under scrutiny after slumping sales in North American led the automaker in September to issue a profit warning on its 2024 results. That included a forecast for a cash burn of up to 10 billion euros ($10.6 billion), mostly due to slow sales and bloating inventories in its North American market, the group’s profit powerhouse. The warning triggered a wide reshuffle of the group’s top management, including changes of its Chief Financial Officer and of its head of North American operations, but initially spared Tavares.
Stellantis later said Tavares was not seeking a new CEO term and would retire at the end of his current mandate, in early 2026. The process to select a new CEO was initially set to be completed by the final quarter of next year.