But the automobile market has since stabilized at a very low level. Stellantis coughed in the first half of 2024, with net profit halved, before sneezing in the face of more serious than expected difficulties in North America. Chief executive Carlos Tavares had to abandon his sacred “double-digit” operating margin target for the year, which placed him far ahead of his competitors, and justified his planned salary of 36.5 million euros ($34.3 billion). of francs) for the year 2023.
A sector plagued by doubt
Is the company’s strategy being called into question? On the contrary, it “has proven itself”, insisted the general director of Stellantis on Thursday, right in his moccasins, during a visit to the Sochaux factory in the east of France. If these new objectives are a “serious warning”, “it is not Stellantis which is (in difficulty), isolated in the middle of the automobile industry (…), It is Stellantis, Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes, and it’s probably not over,” argued Carlos Tavares. In Europe, only its great French rival Renault has not yet revised its objectives downwards.
The forced electrification of the automobile complicates the prospects of these manufacturers in an already gloomy market. Several of them, like Mercedes and Renault, have requested a downward revision of CO2 emissions standards, which will force them to sell more electric vehicles at the start of 2025. Carlos Tavares sees things differently, after having contested for a long time a “dogmatic” transition towards 100% electric in 2035.
“Everyone has known the rules for a long time, everyone has had time to prepare, and so now we are racing,” he said in an interview with AFP in September. Between two planes, this vintage car enthusiast visits historic race tracks around ten times a year. The leader clarified Thursday that he wanted to “contribute to solving the problem” of global warming, for his four grandchildren, while protecting the “freedom of movement” of citizens in their cars.
And for them to be cheaper, you always have to produce less expensively, putting pressure on your employees as well as your suppliers. Employees are therefore regularly encouraged to leave, depending on job cuts plans. At the same time, the Franco-Italian-American group is increasingly relying on low-cost countries, such as Brazil, Morocco or Turkey, to manufacture its cars.
Several unions denounce its methods and strikes threaten in Italy and the United States. “It is normal that the entire social body of the company mobilizes to reduce its costs,” replied Carlos Tavares on Thursday. “The management of this company is not afraid of being unpopular.”
Having attended the French high school in Lisbon, this central player launched his career at Renault, before leaving his position as number two in 2013, muzzled by the all-powerful CEO of the time, Carlos Ghosn. In 2014, he took charge of the PSA group, in dire straits, victim of the crisis which had caused the European market for new cars to fall. PSA was narrowly saved from bankruptcy by the arrival of the French state and the Chinese manufacturer Dongfeng in its capital.
The leader indicated Thursday that he could retire at the end of his first mandate in January 2026, and his succession must soon be discussed in the group. “If you ask my wife, she will say that it is a requirement on her part. I am a good husband,” said Carlos Tavares on Thursday, who lives between France and Portugal, where he owns vineyards and a garage for vintage cars.
