Why did Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares resign? And what did he achieve?

The global boss of mega-conglomerate Stellantis, 
Carlos Tavares, has suddenly resigned. Or been pushed.

There is no official line on why, other than that he and most of the rest of the board had a disagreement over strategy.

But we have a pretty strong clue what that was about.
 And TopGear.com doesn't want to see him off without marking his immense achievements.

Stellantis is the huge company that resulted when PSA merged with FCA in January 2021. 

To explain further, PSA was Peugeot, Citroen and DS, later including Vauxhall and Opel. 

That was the group Tavares was in charge of. FCA itself was the result of a merger, between a European combine – Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Abarth and Lancia – with the US group of Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler.

It's a sprawling enterprise, still not fully integrated.

In an official statement this week, Stellantis senior independent director Henri de Castries said very little. 

"In recent weeks different views have emerged which have resulted in the board and the chief executive coming to today’s decision." That decision being Tavares' departure.

The 'different views' stem from the fact the company's Detroit-based brands have been losing sales in the huge and profitable US market this year. 

Unsold cars were piling up at dealers there.

When I saw Tavares a month ago, he said he'd given the Detroit management too much power, and they'd lost control of the situation. 

Their "daring marketing plan", he said, had failed. This autumn the head of the US division got sacked; Tavares survived.

But he couldn't fix the problem or repair relationships with dealers, which partly stemmed from the fact the vehicles were too expensive. 

Lots of cheaper petrol-engined models had gone out of production with no direct replacements.

Stellantis issued a profit warning and the stock price fell. Great way to annoy the shareholders. This, it's very likely, is the cause of his exit. 

OK, let's look at what the guy did. He is a great petrolhead, often racing and rallying at weekends. 

He was a late convert to electric drive, and embraced it pragmatically. 

His EV platforms, including the one under the Peugeot e-3008, can also run on petrol.

Ref: Why did Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares resign? And what did he achieve? (topgear)