The company, facing slumping sales, announced that Carlos Tavares would step down immediately and that a search for a new chief was underway.
The chief executive of the automaker Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, has resigned, the company said on Sunday, amid a decline in profits and slumping sales in its key North America region.
Mr. Tavares spearheaded the creation of the company in a 2021 merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and France’s Peugeot SA. The company is one of the largest automakers in the world and produces vehicles under an array of brand names, including Chrysler, Jeep, Ram, Dodge, Fiat, Peugeot, Opel and Maserati.
“Stellantis’ success since its creation has been rooted in a perfect alignment between the reference shareholders, the board and the C.E.O.,” the company’s senior independent director, Henri de Castries, said in a statement. “However, in recent weeks different views have emerged which have resulted in the board and the C.E.O. coming to today’s decision.”
Mr. Tavares’s resignation takes effect immediately, the company said in the statement. Earlier this year, Mr. Tavares had announced that he planned to retire at the end of his current contract, in 2026. The company also said that a search for a successor by a special board committee is “well underway.” It added that a new executive committee, headed by John Elkann, the chairman of the Stellantis board, would run the company until a permanent replacement for Mr. Tavares is named.
Under Mr. Tavares, 66, Stellantis flourished for a time following the trans-Atlantic merger, and reported a record profit of 18.6 billion euros, about $19.7 billion, in 2023. But its profits have fallen this year, as sales in the United States dropped significantly. The company was slow to match rivals’ price reductions and sales incentives, and dealer inventories rose.
In October, Stellantis issued a profit warning, saying the cost of fixing its U.S. operations would dent its bottom line. Specifically, the company said operating profit would, at best, amount to 7 percent of sales compared with an earlier forecast of more than 10 percent.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
