Born and raised in Lisbon, Tavares displayed his early passion as a 14-year-old volunteer at the Estoril track. He has since competed in more than 500 races as an amateur driver and has said he became an engineer because he lacked the talent and money to race professionally. He was scheduled to drive a Lancia Stratos at the Monte Carlo historic rally this month before Covid-19 forced its cancellation.
After graduating from one of France’s top engineering schools, Tavares started his career at Renault in 1981. He headed up partner Nissan’s North America operations for two years before becoming No. 2 to Ghosn at Renault in 2011.
In an unusual power play for a top job, he told Bloomberg News in 2013 that since Ghosn was planning to stick around, he would be interested in running GM or Ford He left Renault within weeks and took the helm of almost-bankrupt PSA six months later.
The French state and China’s Dongfeng Motor bailed out PSA by participating in a share sale and 3 billion-euro capital raise.
Tavares pruned the model lineup, cut costs and raised vehicle prices. PSA turned its first annual profit in three years.
He applied similar tactics with Opel and Vauxhall, the brands GM sold to PSA in 2017 after racking up about $20 billion in losses over two decades. By slashing development spending and buying out thousands of workers, he swiftly pushed those operations into the black.
“The Tavares factor was probably the most underestimated” of PSA’s 2014 turnaround plan, said Societe Generale auto analyst Stephen Reitman. “Opel Vauxhall was seen as maybe a step too far, but he proved that by patiently going around and reasoning with people, they would reconsider positions that had contributed to 20 years of losses.”
Bloomberg News spoke with half a dozen people who have worked closely with Tavares. They describe him as ultra-competitive with a dogged attention to detail. He doesn’t tolerate meetings starting late or dragging on and asks underlings to make presentations in five slides or less.
Tavares shuns the annual gathering of business elite that Ghosn frequented in Davos, Switzerland, and shows up to glitzy car shows in scuffed-up shoes. He often spends weekends tinkering on cars at his suburban Paris home.
As head of Stellantis, he’ll answer to dynastic shareholders — the Agnellis, led by Chairman John Elkann, as well as the Peugeots — and politics will play an outsize role. The French state will retain a stake in the merged company, and Italy’s deputy economy minister has hinted its government may acquire a shareholding as well.
PSA’s outgoing Chairman Louis Gallois has said that since Tavares’s roots are in Portugal, where he owns a vineyard and small vintage-car business, he’ll be an effective neutral arbiter.
Stellantis will be an amalgam of model lines with a strong presence in North America’s lucrative truck and SUV segments, thanks to Fiat Chrysler’s Ram and Jeep divisions. PSA’s revitalized Peugeot and Citroen brands also have excelled in Europe and are the envy of Renault.
Yet Stellantis won’t have much of a foothold in the luxury-car business. The Alfa Romeo and Maserati lines are struggling and PSA’s DS is tiny. Fiat Chrysler and PSA also have stumbled in China’s vast auto market.
“Tavares knows that if the Chinese market is a medium- or long-term goal, Europe is right now Stellantis’ most compelling challenge,” said Carlo Alberto Carnevale Maffe, a professor at Bocconi University in Milan. “He needs to act by cutting costs, recovering profitability and investing in a range of technologies.”