The automaker we know in America more generically as Dodge, or maybe Chrysler, goes by Stellantis globally. It encompasses a lot of fabled European brands as well as one Chinese operation. Trying to square all of these competing interests is difficult, if not almost impossible. The last guy who tried flamed out dramatically, so now it’s the job of former Jeep CEO Antonio Filosa to make it work.
This website was launched about a year after the creation of Stellantis, so we’re one of the few websites to exist only in the Stellantis Era. It’s been wild. In case you haven’t been reading this website religiously, it’s probably worth mentioning how this ragtag bunch of brands came to exist and why it’s been so hard to untangle.
In North America, the also-ran automaker AMC survived thanks to support from France’s Renault, which took an interest in the company in the late 1970s. Renault’s then-CEO thought the Jeep brand had enormous value. In the long term, he was correct, but in the short term, he was assassinated. Few CEOs connected to this company get out unscathed.
AMC was absorbed by the Chrysler Corporation shortly after the assassination of Renault’s CEO, who took on Jeep and eventually folded everything else. While there were some good years, even with Jeep, the idea of Chrysler was barely sustainable, and so the company merged with Mercedes owner Daimler. That lasted for about half a minute, and Chrysler was sold off to a private equity firm before going bankrupt and being merged with Fiat to create Fiat Chrysler.
Oh, right, Fiat. The company that was once the engine of Italy’s economy had, over the years, acquired various failing Italian brands (and also Ferrari) to create one giant company. By the time of the Global Financial Crisis, Fiat itself wasn’t in exactly a position of strength, so the merger of the Italian with the American created FiatChrysler. Sergio Marchionne, a chain-smoking Italian-Canadian, would lead the combined group. He did a phenomenal job, considering all the challenges, especially as he recognized that North America was to be the real profit center of the company.
Marchionne died, tragically, of complications related to cancer surgery, and the group limped along for a bit. The next phase would come with the addition of PSA Peugeot Citroen, which was the combination of Peugeot and Citroën. That company also took over Opel/Vauxhall from General Motors, which decided it wanted nothing to do with Europe.
Is that enough prologue? In 2021, all of the above were combined into one automaker called Stellantis, which would be made up of a company partially owned by the French government, one repeatedly indebted to the American government, and one at least emotionally beholden to the Italian government and that country’s unions. Just to make it extra exciting, it would be based in the Netherlands.
The company’s first CEO would be Carlos Tavares, pictured above, who was the number two at Nissan/Renault under Carlo Ghosn and, after that, a successful leader at Peugeot. His tenure was fraught, to say the least. While the company made money during the pandemic, it was basically a squeeze that saw Tavares alienate all its partners, dealers, and customers. The quick profits suddenly turned to crisis as it became clear there was no real obvious plan to make the company’s various parts work together.
Tavares was essentially fired at the end of last year, and Chairman John Elkann has been on the hunt for a replacement ever since. The company now has one, in the form of former Jeep CEO and current COO for the Americas, Antonio Filosa.
“Antonio’s deep understanding of our Company, including its people who he views as our core strength, and of our industry equip him perfectly for the role of Chief Executive Officer in this next and crucial phase of Stellantis’ development,” said Stellantis Executive Chairman John Elkann. “I have worked closely with Antonio over the past six months during which time his responsibilities have increased, and his strong and effective leadership spanning both North and South America at a moment of unprecedented challenge have confirmed the excellent qualities he brings to the role. Together with the entire Board, I look forward to working with him.”
Filosa’s history represents a nice blend of the various parts of the company. He’s Italian, but studied in South America and has spent a lot of time in North America post-Fiat Chrysler merger.
“It is my great honor to be named the CEO of this fantastic Company,” said Antonio Filosa. “I have always been inspired by the immense talent, passion and commitment of our people at Stellantis and the power of trusting our teams to achieve excellence. We have the world’s best and most iconic brands in automotive history and an over 100-year heritage of innovation. That legacy, combined with our relentless dedication to giving our customers the products and services they love, will continue to be key to our success.”
I’m glad he’s excited because it’s going to be a tough gig. Right off the bat, Filosa is going to have to decide which of the company’s 15 brands get to survive. Alfa has been doing better in Europe, but does the company still need DS? Lancia? What about Chrysler? He’s also going to have to patch the company’s relationships with its dealers and the union.
At the very least, with the rehiring of beloved exec Tim Kuniskis, Filosa demonstrated the most important thing a Stellantis CEO needs to do: Keep the company focused on North America, where it actually makes money.
I wish him the best, truly, because an opportunity like this comes once in a lifetime, if ever.
Lancia has one EV that’s sold in Europe. Tons of goodwill and history in that badge. Crank out a two-seater competitor to the Miata but with Italian styling and I’m in….
“In case you haven’t been reading this website religiously”
No problem there…this awesome site is basically my religion now!
I dedicate this to DT:
(Shower spaghetti!)
Look… If you had… one shot… or one opportunity…
To seize everything you ever wanted… one moment…
Would you capture it? Or just let it slip?
Yo
His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy
There’s vomit on his sweater already, mom’s (shower) spaghetti
That’s not shower spaghetti anymore, the baby spit up on him.
Right off the bat, Filosa is going to have to decide which of the company’s 15 brands get to survive. – All of them, plus add Plymouth and Eagle.
Demote Ram and DS back to model names. Lots of people still call the trucks Dodge Ram.
Amen. Dodge makes trucks and ICE/hybrid cars, Chrysler makes the cars/vans that are ICE/Hy/EV, Jeep keeps doing jeep things (printing money mostly). If they want to make new small sports cars run them under the Eagle brand. If big luxobarges come back make them plymouths.
A Brand should be the identity for it’s fleet. Dodge is the mostly testosterone aligned, Jeep outdoors, Chrysler for basic people movers.
Plymouth and Eagle are still largely redundant, as they overlap significantly with Chrysler and Dodge respectively. That’s why they need their own niche. The era of badge engineering is over. Mostly because people no longer care enough to buy a specific brand’s version of one car instead of another.
Jeep has never been able to save any company from the corporate shredder. All would have died if not acquired by another company (mostly for Jeep).
Has any other automotive brand come close to being part of so many companies?
If a person’s husbands/wives kept getting sick and dying, at some point, it would seem natural to stop assuming they all had bad luck and look at the common denominator as the possible cause of their demise.
Jeep is the abused victim who keeps getting passed around. They’re frequently the only profitable brand out of the mix.
So the Jeep was designed by American Bantam, built by Willys and Ford, owned by Willys, then Kaiser, then AMC, AMC teamed with Renault, then Chrysler, Chrysler merged with Daimler, then bought by Cerberus, then became FIAT Chrysler, then Stellantis. Did I miss anything?
Seems correct. I’d forgotten about Kaiser being in there too.
I had never known that until I bought a Kaiser made Jeep.
Chrysler/Ram, Jeep and Dodge inexplicably each have their own grossly overpaid leaders.
Purge them all I say! Get one competent team (preferably made up of people born in North America and steeped in the industry) to rule them all.
One Fiat man alone cannot save these brands.
I don’t disagree, but in all fairness, Filosa, the new guy, was CEO of Jeep. I think it’s a stretch to call him a Fiat guy.
Half those brands don’t deserve saving. Only Jeep and Ram have value – although spinning off RAM into it’s own brand didn’t make sense so RAM trucks could become Dodge trucks again.
Jeeps for SUVs, Dodge for the Caravan and Charger, Ram Trucks – you have a full lineup for the local Jeep / Dodge dealer..
He can choose the new leadership
“Antonio’s deep understanding of our Company, including its people who he views as our core strength, and of our industry equip him perfectly for the role of Chief Executive Officer in this next and crucial phase of Stellantis’ development,”
Well we will see, based on his future decisions, how deep his understanding truly is.
If his understanding is truly deep, then he will keep the Hemi V8 around for as long as people are willing to buy them.
And he will put Ram back under Dodge.
And reassemble the SRT team… only going forward, have them also do crazy high performance versions of their BEVs.
And he will stop starving Chrysler and Dodge for product… starting with giving those brands some CUVs… and losing the idea that Dodge is a “performance” brand when it always has been a mass-market brand meant to go against Chevy, Ford, Toyota, Honda, etc.
Also bring back the DODGE Caravan. And keep the Voyager name for Chrysler… and do it consistently across markets. Stop doing this stupid “Chrysler Grand Caravan” and other stupid brand/model name shit.
And he will give up on Fiat in Canada and the USA… and maybe some other places. Same deal for Alfa Romeo… unless they’re gonna have Alfa as Stellantis’ Porsche.
And unless they’re profitable, axe the DS and Lancia brands.
And keep Maserati around and keep it high end and/or move it to even higher end luxury. Don’t turn Maserati into a mass market luxury brand. Use Chrysler for that.
And for the current Charger EV, fix the issues you can fix, also make a more luxurious Chrysler version
And finally, he will do something to fix Stellantis’ quality and execution problems.
I just googled “Every car that Stellantis makes in 2025”, and I didn’t find a complete list anywhere. The Autopian needs to fix that! Only counts as a different model of car if the brand or exterior sheetmetal is different.
Here’s a link in this very article: A List Of Brands Stellantis Might Kill Ranked From ‘Jeep’ To ‘Most Likely’ – The Autopian
I did have to look up DS, but the article linked does a good job of summing up why or why not they should keep or offload the 15 brands.
Thanks, but I’m not talking about the brands, I’m talking about the car models.
Sorry. I missed that. That would be a big list.
They need Lee Iococca. Since that isn’t possible, how about kinda doing things Lee would do. They already spent a ton of money developing the electric Charger, which is a massive flop. The mini-van saved Chrysler once, so how about an electric mini-van, and a small electric pickup built on the same platform? They’ve already got the tech, they need to use it. Electric muscle cars don’t sell, but I bet Mom would love an affordable E-Van. And a lot of people are wishing for a small, affordable pickup. A “Dodge” pickup!
Even Jon Bernthal pretending to be Lee Iacocca might be helpful.
Is it though? As CEO jobs go, this one is pretty low stakes. The guy before you was terrible and will be blamed if you fail to turn it around, and if you’re able to make any moderately intelligent moves to get them out of the basement of the auto industry then you’re a hero.
And if it all goes Titsylvania up then you’ve got your golden parachute to get you out of it. Pretty sweet gig actually, if you ask me.
Doing a good job with the pieces he has might be tough, but like you said it seems like a pretty sweet gig.
Here we go:
– RAM those trucks back into Dodge
– Roll out the ICE Chargers in Hurricane and Hemi flavors
– Lean the EV charger into the personal luxury coupe angle because ain’t no way muscle car people are gonna buy this
– use the 4 door charger EV platform to make a new Chrysler 300
– use a smaller platform to create the new Challenger (ICE) and Chrysler 200 (EV)
– roll all those overpriced, upmarket creeping, mall crawler Jeeps back to Chrysler and Dodge for the new Journey, Durango, Aspen, etc.
– Roll the Hornet and Tonale off a cliff
– Hi. Bring back the Neon
– Viper too, because we’re burnin cash like no tomorrow anyway
– realize this probably won’t save Stellantis and hope that golden parachute is big enough to slow the meteorite free fall
“– roll all those overpriced, upmarket creeping, mall crawler Jeeps back to Chrysler and Dodge for the new Journey, Durango, Aspen, etc.”
+1
“– Roll the Hornet and Tonale off a cliff”
Nah… the problem with the Horny is they only sell loaded high performance versions. They need to bring out some more basic FWD and FWD hybrid trims.
As for the Toenail, Alfa needs volume. But make it more special by making a manual version.
“– Hi. Bring back the Neon”
And it would be a DODGE Neon. And on that same Neon platform, bring back the PT Cruiser as a practical entry level CUV for the Chrysler brand.
Looking at all the other times Chrysler has failed they bring in something cheap and build a realizable truck cheaper then others. Many rumors of Stalantis selling off brands and possiblely assets to Chinese manufacturers. I wouldn’t doubt it will happen. I don’t think they could get money from Washington maybe various EU states would give them loans or take (more of) an interest in them. Chinese would probably invest. Japanese have enough problems. The Italians have already let the Chinese buy up a lot of companies it’s hard to say if the US would allow it or even if the need to allow it. But the Nippon steal deal appears to be going though it’s different but similar. If the Chinese say we will re open these plants and union workers this that pay this I bet the UAW would be behind it.
Great post! I don’t see Trump loaning any money to a company based overseas, and most of its production (or all of it, for all I know) is also overseas.
One way to goose sales is to reintroduce built in obsolescence and reduce the durability of the vehicles. Oh wait, they’ve already done that.
First off he should mandate all Jeeps have sold front and rear axles, go the opposite of what Land rover is doing.
CDJR needs to untangle their brand image being overlapped by Jeep’s lineup. The luxury-appointed Grand Cherokee and Grand Wagoneer are stepping into territory that Chrysler could have had. The Compass is on the low end that Dodge should have had. The Gladiator takes the mid-size pickup slot that Ram should have had.
They need to decide who is going to cover each market niche or consolidate it all into Jeep like they already seem to be.
Or… just get rid of everything but Jeep since what you describe is what they’ve done anyway.
That’s about the best route I can see them going. Keep Ram for trucks and commercial vans.
Maybe keep Dodge around as a sub-brand for the Charger. Dodge can’t compete as a full lineup brand, and neither can Chrysler, but Jeep can.
See I think the Jeeps are Jeeps. The trucks, commercial vans, minivan, and Charger are all Dodges. Ram never needed to be separate. And Chrysler is already just a minivan so it should be Dodge too.
Jeeps are Jeeps, but the Dodge crossovers aren’t much different from Jeeps. The Dodge brand isn’t working out in that segment, so might as well let Jeep be the only one for it. Dodge can still sell Chargers and the minivan.
Roll Ram back into Dodge and DS back into Citroen day one and at least you streamline things on paper. Knowing what I do of Fiat history, I don’t exactly envy this guy, but historically, they’ve had some smart dudes that can make it work under pretty rough circumstances. I’m choosing to have faith in this and completely ignore all the landmines of the 73 other brands in the conglomerate…
Here we go again…fingers crossed
Surface of the sun hot take:
Time to kill off RAM, and bring back DeSoto!
… and resurrect the best ad jingle ever!
“It’s delightful, it’s de-lovely, it’s DeSoto!”
(https://youtu.be/YoOw0Gtg1kM)
“most important thing a Stellantis CEO needs to do: Keep the company focused on North America, where it actually makes money.”
Actually, PSA made the same profit as FCA before the merger (except for the last year, when FCA was around 0, and PSA was still profitable, as before).
PSA had no NA operations, so…
(But I already wrote this here muliple times.)
And now, if I had to bet, I’d say this new CEO will also ruin the PSA-part of Stellantis.
Stellantis should do what Willys did. Sell Jeep to the highest bidder, then pack up everything else into large ships and send it to Argentina.