Carlos Tavares Will ‘Retire’ In 2026 As Stellantis Shakes Up Leadership

The board of creeky global automaker Stellantis is meeting in New York this week and I wrote this morning that “I don’t see a version of this meeting that doesn’t end with someone losing their job.” We’ve now got the full list, and it starts at the top with the ‘retirement’ of Carlos Tavares, pictured above, in 2026.

How did we get here? Tavares went on a cost-cutting binge when he came on board to Stellantis, which was put together from the bones of PSA Peugeot-Citroën, Fiat Chrysler, and some other odds and ends. That worked during the pandemic and a global shortage of cars allowed Stellantis to bring in massive profits.

This led to Tavares pulling in a lot of compensation, but also to a lot of acrimony from partners. Lately, there’s seemed like there was an absence of an obvious plan for the future. Tavares himself called his perception of the company’s prospects in North America “arrogant” though his general view is that we’re in a “Darwinian” period in the car industry where hard decisions have to be made to be one of the survivors.

With the board meeting coming up, it was leaked that Stellantis was already looking for a new CEO to replace Tavares when his contract ended in 2026. What’s happening now is, uh, he’s retiring in 2026. It’s as much a surprise to me as, possibly, it is to him.

Here’s the word from Stellantis:

John Elkann, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said: “The Board of Directors is unanimous in its support of Carlos Tavares and for the decisive changes announced today. We are confident that these steps to simplify our organisation will strengthen our leadership team as they work to restore the Company’s performance to industry leading levels.”

The Company also confirmed that the formal process to identify a successor to Carlos Tavares, when he retires at the conclusion of his CEO term in early 2026 is already under way. This is being led by a Special Committee of the Board Chaired by John Elkann and will complete its work by the fourth quarter of 2025.

That’s not the only change. Jeep CEO Antonio Filosa will get promoted to North American COO while continuing to serve as head of Jeep. Jean Phillipe Imparato will take over as CEO of Europe, replacing Uwe Hochgeschurtz who “will leave the Company.”

The biggest shakeup is probably CFO Natalie Knight, who is also “leaving the company” and getting replaced by Doug Ostermann, formerly the COO of Stellantis China. Or maybe it’s Davide Grasso being moved out of his job as CEO of Maserati and being replaced by Santo Ficili, who also takes over Alfa Romeo. Grasso, though, hasn’t been shoved out of a window and maybe will get another position within the company.

And what does Tavares have to say about it?

“During this Darwinian period for the automotive industry, our duty and ethical responsibility is to adapt and prepare ourselves for the future, better and faster than our competitors to deliver clean, safe and affordable mobility. The newly appointed leadership team members will make their valuable contributions to our overall team’s determination to tackle the challenges ahead, reinforcing and accelerating our transformation to become the preferred mobility tech company. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to lay the foundations for Stellantis’ future success.”

Darwin is clearly at work at Stellantis.