Car brands like Tesla and Vauxhall risk falling behind due to poor leadership

Elon Musk, Jim Ratcliffe and Carlos Tavares have much in common. Lately, they’ve all bitten off more than they can chew. Each is guilty of taking their eye off the ball. Consequently, their automotive brands have suffered – for very different reasons.

Tavares finds himself out of a job after his controversial stint as Stellantis CEO came to an abrupt end last month. Sure, the 66-year old will miss his reported annual salary of around 40m Euros (£34m). But his ‘leaving bonus’ of almost 100m Euros (£84m)should ensure that he’ll be able to keep the central heating on this winter. Has the not-so-poor bloke left the 14 Stellantis brands in great shape? Hardly. 

One of his final actions on the Vauxhall front was to announce the potential closure of its van plant at Luton, killing off countless jobs in the process. On the car side, the British brand’s registrations on home soil plummeted by more than 21 per cent (2024 vs 2023); for decades it was the seemingly immovable No.2 (after Ford) in the Brit sales league. But with Tavares ultimately in charge of it, Vauxhall dropped out of the Top 10. Introducing stupidly high list prices for humble models such as electric Corsas, then having to slash them, damaged Carlos and more importantly, Vauxhall.

Another Stellantis brand, Maserati, registered only 28 cars in Britain last month, giving itself a miserable 0.02 per cent share of the market. Sister firm DS went one worse with a total of only 27 sales, which represents a 65 per cent drop (comparing December 2024 with Dec ’23). Abarth sales plummeted 73 per cent as the company found just 18 buyers, giving the firm a woeful 0.01 per cent slice of the pie.

Away from the Stellantis clan, Ineos registered 17 vehicles last month. A shortage of seats (really?) was largely blamed, but the problem’s now been resolved, the company claims. But what with his global chemical empire, Manchester United, America’s Cup woes and tons more on his plate, I don’t believe there are enough hours in the day for Jim Ratcliffe to give the Ineos car business the time, expertise and dedication it needs.  

As for Elon Musk and his now part-time job at Tesla, credit where it’s due – the company sold almost as many cars as market leader Volkswagen in the UK last month. 

But globally, BYD is outselling him, with other Chinese companies queuing up to undercut then overtake. I’ve long admired Musk’s automotive work – so much so that I inducted him into The Motoring Hall of Fame. But I’m currently witnessing what I consider to be the greatest mistakes of his working/political life. The EV-loving ‘unofficial co-president’ of the USA awkwardly and sometimes offensively playing politics alongside the EV-hating elected President is excruciatingly painful to watch and listen to. The unlikely bromance will, I predict, soon end in tears.

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