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Quo vadis, Stellantis?

The time after Tavares

On a frosty winter evening in February 2014, I met Carlos Tavares in a modest meeting room in a Zurich hotel. We already knew each other from his time at Renault, where he had only recently become head of the PSA Group when he came to Zurich for the appointment. It was not an interview, but rather he explained in his inimitable style, in great detail, how he wanted to restructure the French company, moving around a lot with his hands, constantly getting up to draw something on a flip chart, explaining the delta of something and the synergies here and there. He spoke English, Spanish and French, and even though I didn’t understand everything, the energy that the Portuguese man, born in 1958, radiated was impressive, as were his ideas. Over the next few years, I met Tavares again and again. Like Ferdinand Piëch, he had an excellent memory for people, greeting even as he walked past at trade fairs, chatting a few words at presentations. For me, Tavares was always not only one of the last remaining great business leaders, but also an exciting personality, a very interesting person.

He left on 1 December, probably swept away by the Italian power base in the Stellantis group. Of course, the know-it-alls are now crawling out of their holes everywhere, pointing an outstretched middle finger at mistakes Tavares is said to have made, telling the world what he should have done differently (actually: everything), why it all could never have worked anyway. Well, I see it a little differently. Firstly, Tavares’s achievements for Stellantis are enormous. Without his mathematical skills (the Portuguese can do mental arithmetic like a computer), his holistic view of the industry and developments in the automotive industry, his assertiveness, and also his love of the automobile per se, without his vision, a structure like Stellantis would not have been possible at all. And without Stellantis, the Italian part of the group, i.e. FCA, would probably no longer exist.

If Tavares can be criticised at all, it is perhaps for not attracting enough talent. He preferred to surround himself with his old comrades-in-arms, who aged with him over the last ten years and did not have their sights set on a broader horizon. For the next few years, Stellantis still seems to be fairly well prepared. The new platforms, which can be used for both purely electric and combustion engines, may not be technically outstanding, but Peugeot and Co. are actually well equipped with them. The group can react to market demand with a certain degree of flexibility, with more electric cars here, fewer petrol cars there. Tavares has prescribed the same strategy for the group as for BMW. And BMW is considered to be well positioned for the future. When the new fleet consumption figures apply in Europe from 2025, in other words in two weeks’ time, it will be up to Stellantis itself to decide how it wants to respond to customer needs. A good example: In the UK, the new Vauxhall Frontera now costs exactly the same as the petrol-powered version, with no longer a surcharge of around 5,000 euros. I don’t know if there is still a margin, but it seems feasible.

At the moment, it seems as if the Italians have taken power at Stellantis. Agnelli’s grandson John Elkann rides through the former FCA factories as a saviour, promises Maserati the 706th comeback, rambles about the great resurrection of Fiat, wants to preserve the Dodge V8. The only problem is that the Italians haven’t got a foot on the ground in the past four years at Stellantis – and that was probably not Tavares’ fault, as he was not stingy with internal criticism (which was then taken outside and used against him). Let’s see who the Stellantis board conjures up from the hat now, maybe another Marlboro man.

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