Stellantis on the Brink: Filosa’s Detroit Pitch and the €15,000 Italian EV Gamble

It has been eighteen months since Carlos Tavares headed for the exit, and to put it mildly, Stellantis is still struggling to navigate its way out of the woods. The share price has cratered, market share is steadily eroding, and those heavily touted synergies from the mega-merger are looking less convincing by the day. Throw massive production overcapacities into the mix, and you have a rather grim backdrop for Antonio Filosa’s first major strategic presentation as CEO. Taking the stage in Detroit this Thursday, Filosa isn’t merely trying to placate jittery markets; he needs to prove that the company’s gruelling spell in the wilderness is drawing to a close. Make no mistake, everything is on the table here—this is a comprehensive, unvarnished review of the business that could very well end in asset sell-offs or outright plant closures if the maths doesn’t stack up.

The E-Car Blueprint and European Pride

A massive chunk of Filosa’s turnaround narrative hinges on a delicate balancing act with Chinese automakers. Hours before the grand reveal in Michigan, word was quietly passed to the Italian trade unions—and subsequently leaked to Il Sole 24 Ore—regarding the so-called ‘E-Car’ project. Earmarked to kick off at the Pomigliano plant near Naples in 2028, the plan is to churn out compact, genuinely affordable electric runabouts priced below the crucial €15,000 threshold.

Filosa is pitching this with plenty of patriotic flair, positioning the initiative as something “deeply rooted in Stellantis’s European DNA.” The underlying argument is that everyday punters are crying out for small, distinctively designed cars that are built with pride in Europe, yet actually cheap enough for the average family to buy.

The Eastern Engine Room

But scratch beneath the surface of that European posturing, and you quickly realise the engine room is decidedly Eastern. Hitting that sub-€15k price tag, whilst simultaneously stripping down the time-to-market, requires some heavy-hitting technical partnerships. Enter Leapmotor and Dongfeng.

Stellantis already holds a 21% stake in Leapmotor and essentially pulls the strings on their European distribution joint venture. It’s hardly a shock that they are now the prime candidates to co-develop these budget, ‘Made in Italy’ EVs. Meanwhile, the Dongfeng relationship is deepening on another front. Following a recent pact to manufacture global-market Jeep and Peugeot models in China from 2027, Dongfeng is also being tipped as the potential white knight for Stellantis’s struggling Cassino plant in Italy, a site that has been severely hamstrung by dismal production volumes for quite some time.

Rome’s Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy has broadly welcomed the Pomigliano blueprint, crossing their fingers that these international tie-ups will finally pump some life back into the domestic supply chain. The unions—Fim, Fiom, Uilm, and the rest of the alphabet soup of Italian labour groups—are making slightly more cautious noises. They admit the E-Car project could theoretically guarantee full employment at Pomigliano down the line. But 2028 is an eternity away in the automotive sector. Until then, it’s a nervous waiting game. For the workforce at Cassino, still stuck relying on solidarity contracts and desperate for a concrete industrial strategy, the sweeping promises made in Detroit are going to ring incredibly hollow until actual metal starts rolling off the production line.