When Stellantis was formed this year, rumors about which brands would survive the merger and which would be axed proliferated. Now, CEO Carlos Tavares has provided us with more information about what the group plans to do with its brands.
Speaking at the Financial Times’ Future of the Car Summit, Tavares said that each of its premium brands will have a period of 10 years to get their house in order and prove that they warrant the company’s resources.
“We’re giving each a chance, giving each a time window of 10 years and giving funding for 10 years to do a core model strategy,” said Tavares, per Autocar. “The CEOs need to be clear in brand promise, customers, targets and brand communications. If they succeed, great. Each brand is given the chance to do something different and appeal to customers.”
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He added that each brand will get a strong CEO and the chance to define its own vision and roadmap for the future. As for Alfa Romeo, Tavares was pretty clear.
“In the past, lots of other car companies were willing to buy Alfa. In the eyes of those buyers, it has a great value. They are right. It has a great value,” he said.
Tavares acknowledged, though, that the Italian brand needs to address a number of issues: “We need to improve the way we talk to potential customers. There is a disconnect with products, history and who we’re talking to. We need to fix the distribution and understand to whom we’re talking and which brand promise we’re talking to them about. It will take some time to get it right.”
He added that Alfa Romeo “will move to the electrification world, but doing that in a dynamic way, with a passionate, successful CEO from Peugeot. Imparato is an Italian citizen and is driving the brand with passion and vision for what needs to be done.”
