Stellantis, the parent company of 14 brands including Jeep, Ram, Peugeot, Citroen, Opel/Vauxhall, Fiat, Maserati and Alfa Romeo, has appointed Antonio Filosa, currently the chief operating officer of Stellantis North America and the automaker’s global chief quality officer, as its new CEO.
Mr Filosa (below) will start in his role as Stellantis CEO on June 23. He will name his executive team closer to that date.
“His track record of successful leadership during his many years with our Company speaks for itself and this, together with his deep knowledge of our business and of the complex dynamics facing our industry, make him the natural choice to become Stellantis’ next CEO,” Robert Peugeot, the automaker’s vice chairman, said in a prepared statement.
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Born in Naples in 1973, Mr Filosa started his career in 1999 as a trainee at Fiat. After roles in Europe and the US, he landed in Brazil in 2005, where worked his way up through program management, plant management and head of purchasing to become the head of Fiat Chrysler Latin America in 2018.
During his time in South America he launched the Jeep brand there, took Fiat to a “market leading position”, and “significantly grew” the Peugeot, Citroen, Ram and Jeep brands.
When he starts in June, Mr Filosa will have long list of items to deal with. Last year profits at Stellantis dropped 70 per cent on the back of falling sales and a glut of unsold vehicles in the US.
There are also persistent quality issues. In mid-2024, then-CEO Carlos Tavares publicly criticised the Sterling Heights plant for building too many Ram 1500 pickup trucks that needed be pulled off the assembly line to be repaired before they could leave the factory.
Another priority for the French-Italian-American automotive conglomerate, the world’s fifth-largest automaker, is sorting out what to do with its collection of 14 brands, which under the previous CEO were all given 10 years to prove themselves.
Those most at risk include Chrysler, which sells just the Pacifica people mover; Lancia, another one-model brand whose reborn Ypsilon is struggling to gain traction; and DS, the luxury brand spun off from Citroen which continues to struggle to establish itself against incumbent marques.
The Chrysler, DS and Citroen brands were retired in Australia in recent years, while Lancia was axed here in 1985.
A recent report indicates Stellantis is preparing to sell Maserati, which posted a €260 million loss last year and cancelled its MC20 Folgore electric supercar.
Stellantis has been without a CEO since Carlos Tavares quit with immediate effect at the beginning of December 2024, reportedly after a disagreement with the board over the company’s EV strategy.
In 2014 Mr Tavares (above) jumped ship from Renault to become CEO of the PSA Group, the parent company of Peugeot, Citroen and DS, after the French government and Chinese automaker Dongfeng bailed the company out. He helped to turn the company around with a sharp focus on costs and platform sharing.
In 2017 he engineered the buy out of Opel and Vauxhall from General Motors. Within a year the beleaguered brands were back in the black after decades of red ink.
With his star ascendent his next move proved to be a bridge too far: the 2021 mega-merger of PSA with Fiat Chrysler to form Stellantis.
Since the departure of Mr Tavares the company, especially in the US, has been trying to mend relationships with its suppliers and dealers. There are also rumours the company may return the Hemi V8 to the Ram 1500 range – an engine Mr Tavares effectively killed off.
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