It’s Friday and I know you missed him, so he’s back for at least one more appearance in The Morning Dump. It’s your boy Carlos Tavares, pictured above, who helped bring the parent company (Stellantis) of some of America’s most beloved brands into existence, and then, through a series of questionable decisions, made those brands way less valuable! Don’t cry for him, Argentina, he’s walking away with a big pay day.
Sino-Swedish electric carmaker Polestar will also be collecting about $450 million, but only as a short-term loan. How low can the stock go? Quite low, it seems. Speaking of stocks, Ford is going to walk away from a plan to stock EVs at regional hubs.
Finally, Nissan may have set up former CEO Carlos Ghosn over fears that he might allow the French to take over the company permanently. Now it seems like the company might be led… by a Frenchman.
Carlos Tavares Only Earned 350x What The Average Employee Earned Last Year
A year ago I wrote about how Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares earned 518x what the average Stellantis worker earned. Some people got mad at me for even asking the question “Is Carlos Tavares worth it?”
I think history would say: he was not. The end of the Tavares era came after he made dealers, workers, suppliers, governments, and customers mad at the company. In particular, dealers were upset that Stellantis stopped investing in new vehicles people wanted, though the company did post record profits by basically squeezing every last dollar out of the old cars. This worked for a time, and if your view is that a CEO’s only job is to make the stock price go up then maybe he was successful. The long-term costs, though, aren’t great. Stellantis now ranks dead last among major OEMs in terms of supplier relations and it’s having to spend real money to keep dealers happy.
It was untenable, and so Carlos got tossed, so to speak. The good news for Carlos, is he did it in a way that’ll see him end up with a pile of cash, though less than last year as the Detroit Free Press reports.
Tavares’ compensation, which was down almost 37% from $39.5 million (36.5 million euros) in 2023, was 350 times that of the average worker’s last year, which was listed as $68,609 (65,993 euros) and which had also dropped from $73,195 (79,404 euros), according to the filing. Profit-sharing checks of $3,780 for the company’s UAW members, to be paid next month, will fall almost 73% from what was paid in 2024.
But wait, there’s more:
In addition, Tavares’ separation agreement calls for a $2.08 million (2 million euros) severance and a $10.4 million (10 million euros) “milestone” connected to an incentive plan to be paid this year, according to the filing. References were also made to company shares as part of the agreement, but a company spokeswoman said those were reflected in the 2024 compensation.
I have no reason to believe that Tavares didn’t want the best for Stellantis. After a career turning automakers around, it probably sucks to have your legacy be a company that admitted in its most recent investor report that it’s going to take at least a year to dig itself out of the hole Tavares dug for it.
Also, he had to endure all the Jon Lovitz jokes which, if he saw them, were probably nonsensical to him. I do wonder if, at some point, a Stellantis PR person had to, like, describe a typical Jon Lovitz character to Tavares. I will buy a beer for anyone who had to do that. I will say a nice thing about the Dodge Hornet. Whatever you want! Let’s be friends!
Polestar Needs $450 Million Loan To Keep Operating, Delays Financial Report Yet Again
Polestar makes good, attractive electric cars. The problem for Polestar is that many other people make good, attractive electric cars. Maybe those cars aren’t as attractive, but many of them are cheaper and have better range.
The economics of Polestar, which was once a Volvo performance offshoot that got gobbled up by shared parent company Geely, only made sense in the early EV buzz era when the automaker went public. Then, it seemed, anyone making electric cars was valuable. That perspective has changed a lot, which has damaged the company’s bottom line, and it’s not clear where the future lies.
Therefore, Polestar is borrowing money and (again) delaying its (probably bad) quarterly financial report according to the company:
In February 2025, the Company secured up to USD 450 million in a 12-month term facility after having secured in December 2024 over USD 800 million in 12-month term facilities.
Polestar originally entered into a 12-month TFF with a syndicate of leading global banks in February 2022 to support its working capital requirements and in February 2025 the facility has been renewed for EUR 480 million.
The financial report will now come out in April, along with the full-year results.
Ford Gets Rid Of Rapid Replenishment Centers
For a while, Ford was pushing the idea of a “Rapid Replenishment Center” to stock electric cars for dealers at regional hubs. Under this system, dealers wouldn’t have to pay floorplan loans for EVs and, in theory, this would make distribution cheaper and more Tesla-like.
In a world where dealers can’t get Lightnings fast enough, this might have made sense, but that doesn’t seem to be the world we’re all living in right now.
According to Automotive News, that idea is dead:
Ford began piloting the concept in May 2024 with the F-150 Lightning and late last year tried to boost participation by incentivizing dealers to order through the centers. But slow adoption and a series of issues prompted the company to pull the plug.
Executives told dealers at the 2025 NADA Show, and in subsequent internal video messages, that Ford was discontinuing the system and returning the Lightning to the traditional wholesale process used for every other model.
“Our intent all along was to better serve the customer,” Mike O’Brien, Ford’s senior director of retail network and sales strategy, told Automotive News. “We think the pilot, from an operational perspective, was a big success. That being said, we listen to our dealers. There’s been a lot of shifts in the marketplace. It is a little tricky to have two different [sales] methodologies.”
You gotta try things.
The Frenchman Who Might (Temporarily) Run Nissan
It’s not official that Nissan is ditching its CEO, and I don’t have enough insight into the company to say one way or the other. People are talking about it, though, and people are contemplating who might be next. That’s never a good sign.
The easiest and most likely interim choice? The guy right behind current CEO Makoto Uchida, according to Japanese business publication Diamond:
Even after Nissan’s performance had fallen into a slump, Uchida could have negotiated with financial institutions and collaborative partners to protect Nissan’s tangible and intangible assets in exchange for his own dismissal, and his self-preservation attitude was enough to displease Nissan employees.
Nissan’s nomination committee and board of directors, which appointed Uchida and allowed him to continue in power, should also be criticized for their negligence.
According to Diamond’s editorial team, CFO Jeremy Papin is expected to be selected as the “interim CEO” to succeed him. Because this will be a sudden change of position, the title will likely include the caveat that he has been selected on an interim basis.
Papin previously served as Chairman of Nissan Americas and Nissan, more than anywhere, needs to do better in North America. Is it a little ironic that Nissan forced out Carlos Ghosn because, partially, it was afraid of being run by the French and now they’re going to put a Frenchman in charge?
Yes.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Imagine trying to explain Japanese ’90s hip-hop group Cibo Matto to your daughter? You can’t. So you just put “Sci-Fi Wasabi” on and let Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori take it away.
The Big Question
Was Carlos Tavares worth it?
Top photo: Depositphotos.com/Stellantis
“Was Carlos Tavares worth it?”
Nope. I think many Oppos including myself could have made better decisions.
Of course not. All these CEOs fail in one place and get a raise to go to another place. It’s like the NFL. Keep hiring failed coaches and failed players and guarantee money. They get a bump but they failed miserably but the company never says you fail you get nothing. just offer more money guarantee even for a failure like Tavares. Hell is hire the pretend Tavares before him
Stereo Type A! That was one of my favorite random CDs purchased from Columbia House back around the turn of the century. Still have it, and did just as you said – no explanations for the daughter, just played it as part of the background soundtrack on various family outings. I didn’t realize she had paid much attention until she got really into Gorillaz a few years later and asked if I knew that Miho Hatori was also in Cibo Matto. Kids can be pretty amazing.
The more you write about Carlos Tavares and post pictures of John Lovitz, the more I enjoy the joke. This guy was a Joke.
Polestar could fix everything by adding a space between the words.
“Poles Tar” I don’t think that works either.
No no, think Spanish. “Pol Estar”
Was Carlos Tavares worth it?
No, according to Fred Sanford:
“Ya big dummy!”
The John Lovitz jokes were definitely worth it though
I’m bad at all kinds of shit, and I would only charge 25% of that to have my name permanently tarnished by being associated with Stellantis. Call me.
Oh hell yeah. Cibo Matto nineteen ninety nine! Been listening to them ever since I heard Birthday Cake on the soundtrack for Jet Set Radio Future back in 2002. Got both Viva La Woman! and Stereo Type A in physical format, and I’m hoping to get their newer album Hotel Valentine made when Miho rejoined after a decade of working with Damon Albarn on Gorillaz. It’s hard to find a CD because that was when physical media fell off a cliff…
As for Tavares…
I really think it’s fucking stupid that severance and bonuses are guaranteed at point of completion rather than after a service review. If I quintuple our stock prices by selling off everything except my desk at the top of the tower I have technically completed the milestone of an increase of five percent year-over-year. Except the next week the company’s not going to exist because I’ve ruined it. I shouldn’t get the bonus after review. It basically incentivizes me to trash the place before I leave because I make more money.
How is that not John Lovitz?
Was Carlos Taveres worth it? You bet! I laughed so hard every day. Also, you’re probably going to need to buy a brewery.
Been listening to Cibo Matto since I first saw the video for Sugar Water on MTV’s AMP way back in the day… lovely band indeed.
I took studio art classes in the late 1990s/early 2000s. One class I took was studying and making music videos. I was particularly fascinated with Michel Gondry’s work; one of the videos he produced was the “Sugar Water” video. That’s how I learned Cibo Matto’s music, as well.
I’ve got a DVD with a bunch of Gondry’s music videos on it around here somewhere… he did some really great ones with Bjork too.
The “Director’s Series”? I have his, Spike Jonze and Chris Cunningham’s DVDs. The Gondry ones you watch and think, “Wait, how did he do that?”
One thing my friends were fascinated by was “Know Your Chicken.” They thought it was so weird and always asked me to play it on my iPod or PSP.
It is so weird, though! But also awesome.
I said before that Tavares is an ideal CFO because he’s hyper-focused on money, to the exclusion of everything else. What success he has had in his career has been exclusively around cost-cutting. He was a disaster as Stellantis CEO and definitely not worth 100 million dollars.
Props for introducing the audience to Cibo Matto. My first exposure was in 2011 from a friend’s music collection. Weird to think Sean Lennon was involved with them for a while.
Geely really needs to rethink how they handle Volvo and polestar in the west. One of them needs to be like geelys other brands not this premium product they seem to think it is. Right now most people have no idea where they sit. They know Volvo but don’t want to pay what geely thinks Volvos should sell for. Then polestar they have less of an idea. They all all badge engineered to and from other geely cars now for the most part anyway. Just sell the thing for what it sells for in China plus whatever tariffs and taxes and it will sell. The trying to get 3 to 5x the price for the same car thing just isn’t panning out.
Canada has a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs. They’re going to have a tough time selling as a less premium brand here. But I agree, what they’ve got going on now doesn’t make a lot of sense.
They have enough of a design portfolio and plants all over including in Europe the us and Malaysia to find favorable model with favorable tariff. If they really wanted to ruffle feathers make that radar truck at the Volvo plant in South Carolina. They sell it for about $20k in China even at $35k it would draw some interest. They have a few $20k and under cars they could make in the US Europe or Malaysia and actually sell things.
“In a world where dealers can’t get Lightnings fast enough, this might have made sense”.
When the cars are going from the truck to the customer there would be no reason for a regional distribution model. It would just slow things down. The regional model works best when there is enough capacity to build some stock. Instead of 30 dealers in a region each stocking the same make/model/color/trim and hoping to find the right buyer the regional DC can stock 5 or 10. That type of model requires less total inventory to service customers but it puts the product slightly further away from them.
Dealers already sort of kind of do this. They have an inventory system that they can all search and if another dealer nearby has the right model they can transfer it (but this usually involves some horse-trading between the dealers or the other dealer may just say no).
I am convinced the F150 Lightning was produced in a bubble. I just don’t get the thinking:
The Mach-E has it’s issues but it seems to be doing a lot better than the Lightning. If Ford would acknowledge the “no more cars, only trucks and SUVs” thing may have been a bit premature, they could actually compete in the segment.
I think you are right they really thought it was the way and they were so clever. The mach-e as well build a bev cuv thing and call it a mustang. If they would have focused on hybrids and just meeting demand for the EVs they would be better off. I think pretty much everyone that has a use case for the lightning already got one. With incentives and discounts they are now significantly cheaper then the the ice trucks but they still aren’t moving very well.