Today Stellantis officially announced its Executive Team along with the 9 dedicated committees* covering enterprise-wide performance and strategy for running the merged FCA and PSA companies. It is the latest merger in the capital-destroying automotive industry that seeks to pursue scale where the promise of synergies will – it is hoped – result in competitive rates of return, along with a sustainable business. (see AutoInformed on Bye Bye FCA and PSA. Hello Stellantis)
Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, said at its inaugural press conference: “This highly competitive, committed and well-balanced team will leverage its combined skills and diverse backgrounds to guide Stellantis to become a great company.” He claimed that this was not a defensive merger. (Stellantis means “brightens with stars”; from the Latin verb stello.)
The Stellantis name will be used exclusively at the Group level, as a corporate brand. The names and the logos of the Stellantis Group’s basic 14 brands remain unchanged. What actually happens to the brands is an entirely different matter. AutoInformed readers likely realized that such mergers are difficult, and the road – looking backward – is littered with abandoned or failed promises of synergies and sales from such ventures. (FCA + PSA = Massive Job Losses, FCA-PSA Merger – Surviving Platforms and Powertrains) Continue reading












Honda’s New Mobility Business – Cruise to Send First Self-Driving Vehicles to Japan for Testing
A small but symbolic milestone in the mobility business.
Honda today announced that it will work together with Cruise and General Motors on self-driving vehicles for its autonomous vehicle mobility service (MaaS) business in Japan. This, admittedly small but symbolic milestone, is a direct result of the development and commercial agreements signed in October 2018. (see AutoInformed – Honda Joins with Cruise and General Motors to Build New Autonomous Vehicle. Honda Investment Of $750 Million Values Cruise At $14.6 Billion, GM, Cruise, Microsoft to Commercialize Self-Driving Vehicles, GM and Honda to Jointly Develop Honda Electric Vehicles)
Cruise will be sending the first of its self-driving test vehicles to Japan and start development for testing this year. Eventually, Honda aims to launch its MaaS business using the Cruise Origin, a vehicle the three companies are jointly developing solely for autonomous vehicle mobility service businesses. Honda Mobility Solutions Co., Ltd., established in February 2020, will be the operator of such MaaS business in Japan. Continue reading →