The company that owns Fiat has hired a guy named Tony to fix things. You can't make this stuff up.
The 14-brand conglomerate Stellantis has finally selected a new CEO after its founding leader abruptly left the company last year amid a dispute with its board of directors. Today, his replacement was named: Antonio Filosa, most recently CEO of Jeep, and himself a 25-year veteran of the family. He inherits a massive global car company that's facing some tough questions about the future. Can he turn things around?
That kicks off today's edition of Critical Materials, our morning roundup of industry and technology news. Also on tap today: new car sales in America are expected to slow down after March and April's pre-tariff rush, and General Motors is hedging its electric-vehicle bets with more V8 engines. Let's dig in.
30%: Antonio Filosa Has To Get Stellantis Ready For What's Next
Stellantis is kind of a preposterous car company, when you really think about it. It's the product of a merger between Fiat Chrysler (itself a merger, naturally) and France's PSA Group, so it counts under its umbrella everything from Fiat and Jeep to Citroën and Opel. This was all supposed to give Stellantis unprecedented scale to meet the future of carmaking, which will be powered by batteries and software instead of engines and conventional hardware.
It's fair to say things haven't exactly gone that way. Under the previous CEO Carlos Tavares (who was as much the architect of Stellantis as anyone) the company's multi-national collection of brands faced issues with profitability, sales, pricing, competing on technology, coming in late to electrification and cooperating with one another. Then you add in the usual set of auto industry problems these days, including declining sales in China, high labor costs and market declines in Europe, tariffs, layoffs, labor unrest, angry dealers... the list goes on and on.
By the time Tavares left, everybody wanted him gone. The dealers were mad, the unions were mad, the investors were mad, and the customers were mad at the outrageous prices they were paying for the cars. It's hard to parse what's actually gone well at Stellantis, if we're being brutally honest—even if some individual brands have done better than others.
Filosa is tasked with fixing that. He's an Italian native who started with the Fiat Group in 1999 and had an expansive career across Latin America, then North America, and most recently heading up the entire Jeep brand and serving as Chief Operating Officer for the Americas. "Since his appointment, he has initiated the strengthening of the U.S. operations, including by significantly reducing excessive dealer inventory, reorganizing the leadership team, driving the process of introducing new products and powertrains, and increasing dialogue with dealers, unions and suppliers," Stellantis officials said in a statement.
Besides repairing many fractured relationships, Filosa will need to better transition Stellantis into an electrified and software-powered car company in many of its markets—a tall order when many of its contingents seem eager to fall back on internal combustion.
And he may be tasked with killing off some brands, which is probably overdue.
60%: May New Car Sales May Be Milder, Just Like EV Growth
New car sales, including EVs, have been relatively strong this year despite still-high interest rates. But a new report from S&P Global Mobility says that May's numbers are expected to be cooler as customers brace for the impact of tariffs.
"Given the swirling tariff, consumer and auto inventory conditions, the expected May 2025 auto sales result will likely be the last period this year to post positive growth in year-ago and month-prior comparisons," said Chris Hopson, principal analyst at S&P Global Mobility. "Shifting tariff policies have automakers scrambling to produce vehicles while they can, but uncertainty abounds in the immediate term and upcoming monthly sales levels are expected to decelerate further."
S&P reports that the same is unfortunately true for the EV field in America. While EV tax credits remain in effect for now, and likely will for several more months, it's clear that they're in the crosshairs of the Trump administration and Congress.
"BEV share fell to an estimated 7.0% in both March and April, and while some of the lower share could be attributed to strong non-BEV demand, BEV growth is moderating," the report said. "May BEV share is expected to reach a similar 6.8% share, reflective of the uneasiness as automakers, dealers and consumers continue to digest potential changes to BEV incentives."
If you are shopping for a new EV, now is the time to do it before the credits go away and tariffs really start to hit.
90%: GM Replaces Electric Motor Plan For More V8s
GM may be playing the long game on EVs and batteries, but for the foreseeable future, it still makes its money with big, gas-powered trucks. And EV sales haven't begun to eclipse the sales of gas cars at the pace once predicted by the entire industry.
Hence, a GM plant in Buffalo once destined for electric motors is now going to make new V8 engines instead. From the Wall Street Journal:
The company said Tuesday its new plan marks its largest single investment in an engine plant and makes Tonawanda its second propulsion plant to produce the sixth generation of V8 engines.
The engines, used in full-size trucks and SUVs, use new combustion and thermal management innovations to improve performance while reducing emissions, the company said.
The investment includes new machinery, equipment, tools and facility renovations, and builds on GM’s work to boost its manufacturing facilities in recent years, including a half-billion-dollar investment in its Flint engine plant in 2023, the company said.
GM still says it sees the future as all-electric—eventually. But getting there is the tricky part.
100%: How Would You Turn Stellantis Around?
At least here in America, it's often disappointing to see Stellantis' brands so behind the curve on electrification. Sure, it's had success with hybrid Jeeps and the like, but its pure EV game leaves a lot to be desired so far. Then again, the company seems to have more immediate, existential issues it must face before it can tackle the future.
What would be your advice to Filosa as he starts a massive turnaround job? Let us know what you think of Stellantis' present and future in the comments.
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
