Stellantis taps insider CEO to forge a new path in the US

Detroit has long been the engine of Stellantis NV’s U.S. business, home to brands like Jeep and Dodge that once defined American muscle and grit. Now it’s the center of a corporate identity crisis.

The company that built its brands around American heritage has been falling behind in the U.S. market due to an aging lineup, model delays and pricing blunders. To reverse the slump, the automaker on Wednesday named Antonio Filosa its new chief executive officer – a company veteran picked in part because of his U.S. experience. The 51-year-old Italian lives in Michigan, previously ran the Jeep brand and is seen as a less divisive leader than his predecessor, Carlos Tavares.

But Filosa is stepping into an automotive storm. President Donald Trump’s tariff moves are raising costs and upending global supply chains. In Europe, Chinese manufacturers led by BYD Co. are pushing into a stagnant car market, fanning the flames of competition with their low-cost models. Stellantis’ issues are gravest in the former profit center North America, where its shipments cratered 20% in the first quarter after Tavares hamstrung operations with painful cost cuts.

Filosa needs to set a clear strategy so the company can move forward, said Stephanie Brinley, an analyst at S&P Global Mobility. “Product is key to all of this,” she said. “It’s going to take time to get Stellantis where they envisioned it would be.”

Despite urgent pressure for change, finding a new CEO took months. Stellantis considered outsiders such as Hyundai CEO José Muñoz and AutoNation boss Mike Manley, Bloomberg reported earlier this month. With key decisions on the company’s future direction stalling, the board led by Chairman John Elkann in recent weeks honed in on Filosa, who beat out another internal candidate, said the people, who asked not to be named because the talks were private.

Born in Naples, Italy, Filosa has had a lifelong passion for cars and motorcycles, buying his first Ducati at age 15, and an Alfa Romeo three years later. He joined Fiat in 1999 and later rose through the ranks as a protégé of the late Fiat Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne. Living most of his professional life outside Italy, Filosa has held positions in Europe, South America and the U.S.

As Jeep CEO, he launched the long-delayed battery-powered Wagoneer sport utility vehicle just as EV sales were losing steam in the U.S. He’s under pressure to rejig the lineup in the country as local drivers gravitate toward hybrids. Filosa took over as chief operating officer for North America in October as part of a broader shake-up in the waning days of Tavares’ tenure.

Fixing the U.S. business may take some time. Tavares’ stringent cost cuts – like swapping metal parts for plastic ones on rugged vehicles – alienated longtime customers and hurt its stable of local brands that also include Ram and Chrysler. Dealers, burdened with high sticker prices, struggled to move inventory.

“Tavares hit the limit when it came to cost cutting, so the new CEO will have the unenviable task of rebuilding quality, margins and volumes,” said Matthias Schmidt, an automotive analyst based near Hamburg, Germany.

Elkann on Wednesday signaled a pivot from the Tavares era of one-way dictates from Paris, saying in a letter to employees that Stellantis will focus on teamwork to fix its problems.

Filosa must also address mounting challenges in Europe, where Stellantis, Volkswagen AG and Renault SA contend with high energy and labor costs as well as muted sales. In markets like Italy, Fiat’s combustion-engine models are losing ground to more affordable offerings such as Dacia’s Sandero. Electric cars like the Fiat 500 have struggled to win over buyers due to relatively high sticker prices. Stellantis’ sales in the region are down 9.6% after the first four months of the year.

The company’s fall from grace – its market capitalization peaked at €86 billion ($97 billion) in March of last year – has been drastic. Stellantis warned in February that it was expecting profitability to remain lackluster this year, forecasting a mid-single digit adjusted operating income margin. That was a far cry from the double-digit returns Stellantis was projecting in early 2024. The company suspended its guidance last month, citing tariff-related uncertainties. It’s now worth around €26 billion.

Stellantis operates 14 brands across several segments – from Opel, a German mass-market manufacturer squeezed by Korean and Chinese rivals, to Maserati, an Italian luxury carmaker whose sales cratered 48% in the first quarter after it discontinued two popular models. What was meant to offer scale to better compete globally has turned into managerial sprawl, and Filosa will have to decide how to best shape the group’s portfolio going forward.

He appears keen to at least reset the tone. In a message to employees, Filosa emphasized humility – a contrast to Tavares’s command-and-control leadership – and pledged to visit workers at factories around the world in the coming weeks to listen to what they have to say.

“As Mr. Sergio Marchionne would say: ‘Mediocrity is not worth the trip.’ Let’s win this one together!” Filosa wrote on LinkedIn.