Stellantis borrowed its starry name from Latin to unite fourteen car brands
Jeep, Peugeot, Maserati, Fiat, Opel and Ram now sit under one roof with an invented name. Stellantis comes from the Latin stello, to brighten with stars, and was picked by branding agencies to suggest the history of every brand shining together. The merger behind it came about only after an earlier courtship collapsed.
In early 2019 Fiat Chrysler Automobiles reached a provisional deal to combine with Renault, but it fell apart amid political worries in Paris and resistance from Renault's partner Nissan. FCA turned instead to France's other big carmaker, the PSA Group, maker of Peugeot and Citroën, and the two agreed to merge that December. Together they would be the world's fourth-largest carmaker by sales, promising annual savings of €3.7 billion.
A key motive was electrification. FCA had fallen chronically behind on electric drivetrains, while PSA was far more advanced. The planners also looked to French luxury groups such as LVMH and Kering, and to Volkswagen, as models for managing a big stable of distinct brands. European regulators cleared the deal in December 2020, shareholders approved it in January 2021, and the merged group began trading under the ticker STLA days later. On paper PSA counted as the buyer.
The founding families kept a strong hand. The Agnelli family's investment company Exor held the largest stake, with the Peugeot family and the French state bank Bpifrance next. Carlos Tavares of PSA became chief executive, pledging over €30 billion for electrification and software by the end of the decade, and the company began with roughly 300,000 staff and factories in 30 countries.
His tenure turned rocky. Deep cost-cutting was blamed for delayed models and weaker brands, especially in North America, and in 2024 net profit fell 70%. Tavares resigned that December, two years early, and the company went six months without a chief executive before Antonio Filosa took over in June 2025. The group is registered in the Netherlands; N.V. is simply the Dutch equivalent of PLC.
Source: Stellantis
