With a new CEO at the helm, a lot will change at Stellantis. Electrification plans are being scaled back, which means the company will have to incur 22 billion euros in write-downs.
Since Antonio Filosa took the helmet at Stellantis, there has undoubtedly been a healthy tension in the offices of the automotive giant. Filosa is, after all, the man who must turn the tide and bring the finances in order with major course changes and probably even the scrapping of entire brands.
An important part of that transition is that Stellantis, according to its own statements, wants to be guided more by market demand. The company also wants to offer customers ‘freedom of choice’. Anyone who follows automotive news a bit knows what that means: electrification is slowing down. Instead of electrifying at a furious pace under pressure from regulations and self-imposed ambitions, Stellantis is now adopting a more cautious and realistic approach. If the customer prefers a hybrid over an EV, Stellantis will build a hybrid. That might seem logical, but one look at the fully electric Dodge Charger is enough to see that ambitions, until recently, clearly trumped realism.
However, scrapping large-scale electrification plans will now cost a lot of money. Stellantis speaks of no less than 22.2 billion euros in write-downs due to changed or scrapped development processes. This amount will be accounted for in the second half of 2025, and because this leads to a net loss, shareholders should not expect a dividend in 2026. Shareholders are clearly shocked by this news: Stellantis’s share price plummets by 22 percent on Friday morning.
There are also concrete examples of scrapped EV projects. For instance, as previously announced, there will be no fully electric RAM 1500 pick-up, because it ‘cannot be profitably produced on a large scale’. Other aspects of the major reorganization include bringing part of the production to the United States, hiring thousands of new engineers, and a strong focus on improving the quality of the cars.