Tariffs Drag Stellantis Deep Into the Red – and Will Get Worse in 2nd Half, Automaker Warns

Tariffs Drag Stellantis Deep Into the Red – and Will Get Worse in 2nd Half, Automaker Warns
U.S. and European trade negotiators reached the framework agreement on a new trade deal that will result in new, 15% tariffs on most European goods shopped to the States, including automobiles. That’s a sixfold increases from before and for buyers of products from brands like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Fiat and Maserati, that could mean substantially higher prices. It could also hammer profits for those manufacturers – though U.S. negotiators hope the deal will see more production moved to the United States. More from Headlight.News.
New Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa isn’t wasting time. He’s shaking up the automaker’s executive ranks – the latest move seeing Ram boss Tim Kuniskis expand his roll to include North American Marketing and Retail Strategy – while also reviving the old Street and Racing Technology division better known simply as SRT. More from Headlight.News.
Stellantis has a new CEO. After a nearly 6-month search, Antonio Filosa steps into the vacancy created by the unexpected resignation of Carlos Tavares last December. The 51-year-old Filosa faces some serious challenges, including weak sales by key brands Ram and Jeep. He may also face the question of whether to abandon some of the 14 Stellantis brands, such as Chrysler and Fiat. More from Headlight.News.
A German court has convicted four former Volkswagen managers of fraud in connection with the “Dieselgate” scandal that saw the automaker pay out more than $33 billion in fines and other costs for rigging diesel emissions data. Two of the VW employees face prison time. More from Headlight.News.
Nearly a half year after the unexpected resignation of Carlos Tavares, the founding chief executive of Stellantis, the Euro-American automaker has yet to name a replacement. But the search may be coming to an end, according to a new report which says Antonio Filosa, currently the head of Americas operations for Stellantis, has become the leading candidate.
The promised turnaround at Stellantis all but sputtered out during the first quarter as sales in the U.S. dropped by double digits. With the search for a new CEO still ongoing, the Euro-American automaker struggles to find its direction, reports Headlight.News.
Back when Lee Iacocca was running Chrysler the company famously offered motorists a chance to “Buy a Car, Get a Check.” These days, the automaker is part of a trans-Atlantic conglomerate and Stellantis has a new pitch aimed at its U.S. union workers: quit your job and get a check. More from Headlight.News.
If you’ve been looking at one of the new Jeep Wagoner S Launch Edition models but can’t quite get your head around the $71,995 starting price – before factoring in delivery fees – the off-road brand rolled out a more affordable option at the Chicago Auto Show Thursday, the Wagoneer S Limited. And while it may be more than $6,000 cheaper, the “mid-range” model still has a lot going for it, starting with a 500-hp all-wheel-drive electric drivetrain. Headlight.News has more on the new model – and other Jeep news.
Stellantis continued its quest to put the right executives in the right jobs, in the wake of former CEO Carlos Tavares’ early exit late last year. The biggest change was having current Americas Regions COO Antonio Filosa take on the role of global leadership of Quality. Filosa remains a candidate to succeed Tavares, as well. Get details at Headlight.News.
Once one of the most important auto shows in North America, if not the world, the annual Motor City event returned to its original January schedule after a brief summer run. But what has been renamed the Detroit Auto Show is a mere fraction of the size of what it was during its glory days. Headlight.News looks at what has happened — and why.
If you’re wondering just how bad things got for Stellantis last year, consider the fact that its Ram pickup fell off the podium, losing its traditional third-place position in the U.S. sales race – behind the Ford F-Series and Chevrolet Silverado – to Toyota’s RAV4 SUV. Overall, the Euro-American automaker was one of only two manufacturers to report a decline in sales in 2024 and faces serious challenges to turn things around in 2025.