New Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa faces slew of challenges on day one

DETROIT — “Mediocrity is not worth the trip.”

That was part of incoming Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa’s first public message after being named to lead the global automaker. It was a mantra decades in the making, as he spent 25 years climbing through the company’s ranks, starting from a role as a night shift paint shop supervisor in Spain.

The quote also referenced late Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, a mentor of Filosa’s who is revered in the company. Marchionne unexpectedly died in 2018, years before the automaker merged to form Stellantis, the parent for brands such as Jeep, Ram, Fiat and Chrysler.

Several former and current Stellantis executives and employees who have worked with Filosa highlighted his connection to Marchionne when speaking with CNBC. They also described him as an engaging, collective leader who knows the business well, from the factory floors to C-suite offices, but who faces a slew of challenges and tests ahead.

As Filosa officially steps into the CEO role on Monday, he will need to channel Marchionne — viewed as a dynamic executive and thinker who saved Italian automaker Fiat and America’s Chrysler — to be successful in turning around the embattled carmaker.

The most recent CEO, Carlos Tavares, who spearheaded the merger to form Stellantis, abruptly resigned in December amid disagreements with the company’s board, yearslong sales declines and a 70% drop in net profit last year. He, like Marchionne, was considered a dynamic CEO by those inside and outside the company, but many thought he focused too much on cost cuts, to the detriment of the business.

In addition to financial issues, industry experts said Filosa will need to continue to mend bonds with dealers, politicians and employees that were damaged during Tavares’ tenure. And he’ll have to handle the company’s investment plans between traditional vehicles and “electrified” models such as hybrids and EVs.

“We need to manage the transition, right? It’s not a secret that electric vehicles will be [a] strong part of the future, right? Not only for Stellantis, but for the automotive industry itself,” Filosa, then-Stellantis’ head of the Americas, told reporters in January. “The pace and the speed, probably something that needs to be slightly reassessed.”

Filosa, at that time, said it will be on the new CEO to decide the pace. He described the company’s issues as “a multitask challenge” for whoever the board would appoint, which ultimately was him.

Employees were distraught over cuts and layoffs, while the company’s franchised retailers were livid about Stellantis’ sales and market share losses under Tavares. The Stellantis National Dealer Council in September penned an unprecedented open letter condemning Tavares’ actions.

“Your own distribution network, your dealer body, has been left in an anemic and diminished state,” Kevin Farrish, a dealer in Virginia who led the council, wrote in the letter.

Michael Bettenhausen, a dealer in Illinois who succeeded Farrish, has spoken fondly of Filosa but said there is still a lot of work to get done.

“We need to mutually work together and dive into all the issues here in the North American operations, and we look forward to Antonio still being a part of those discussions,” he said.

Stellantis’ global sales under Tavares fell 12.3% from 6.5 million in 2021 — the year the company was formed — to 5.7 million in 2024. That included a roughly 27% collapse in the U.S. in that period to 1.3 million vehicles sold. The automaker dropped from fourth is U.S. sales to sixth, falling from an 11.6% market share to 8% during that time frame.

Filosa — a native of Naples, Italy — said in January the top priority for the U.S. was to grow retail market share, which includes sales to customers as opposed to those to fleets or businesses.

“We need to do that. It’s not a belief; it’s a need,” he said. “The U.S. retail market share really measures…