Stellantis: Carlos Tavares Earned 100,000 Euros a Day in 2023

With an exceptional remuneration of 36.5 million euros in 2023, the head of the automotive group Stellantis is the highest paid in France.

Sometimes luck makes a good point, or so the Stellantis group’s accountant might say. With a salary of 36.5 million euros in 2023 and 365 days in a year, it’s a neat calculation: 100,000 euros per day.

To understand this fact, beyond jealousy or partisan comments, one must take a step back. Born in 1958 in Portugal, Carlos Tavares attended the French high school in Lisbon before moving to France around his majority to pursue higher education. First in Toulouse, then at École Centrale in Paris.

Brilliant mind, he is primarily driven by a compulsive passion for automobiles. Joining Renault in 1981 as an engineer, he climbed all the ranks, becoming responsible for local markets, then Nissan, and finally second-in-command of the Renault group in 2011 under the very controversial Carlos Ghosn. With no prospects for advancement, this leader of men decided to leave in August 2013.

In April 2014, he was appointed CEO of the PSA Peugeot-Citroën group, then severely ill. Losses were huge and momentum broken. Carlos Tavares then imposed an ascetic reform on his company, involving workforce reduction, productivity increases, and growth in activity.

A deserved remuneration?

In his mind, Tavares is convinced of one thing: PSA is a small fish that can be quickly swallowed. Therefore, it must grow, and fast. As early as 2017, he sanctioned the acquisition of the German automaker Opel, also very ill, from the American group General Motors. Through synergies and obvious economies of scale, he once again turned the company around and brought it into profitability. There was no inevitability about poor financial performance. Meanwhile, the Renault group was dealing with Ghosn’s case, imprisoned in Japan for fraud, and then making a remarkable escape to Lebanon…

In 2021, Tavares continued his growth strategy by negotiating a merger with another mid-sized player, the Fiat-Chrysler group of the Agnelli family. The merger of PSA-Opel and Fiat-Chrysler created a giant with 17 brands, now shielded against storms and potential attacks. Strong commercial results followed, and profitability reached record levels.

Obviously, this merger was not without heavy salary costs, as the synergies involved eliminating some overlapping roles. Carlos Tavares is a perfectionist, like when he fine-tunes his race car. Every potential source of performance must be optimized, and by 2021, net profit reached 13.4 billion euros. It continued to grow, reaching 16.8 billion euros in 2022 and 18.6 billion euros in 2023.

Carlos Tavares’ compensation is tied to Stellantis’ results. In 2021, as a reward for the successful merger, he received 61 million euros (salary + shares), 23.5 million in 2022, and 36.5 million in 2023. Totaling 121 million euros over three years.

Admittedly, these sums are dizzying, but they are in line with the average of the world’s top executives, capable of turning around desperate situations. Without Carlos Tavares, Peugeot and Citroën brands might no longer be French today, or might not exist at all. In just three years, Stellantis’ market capitalization has surged from 96.33% to 78.1 billion euros. That’s a return higher than that of a savings account…

The announcement of such compensation understandably does not sit well with the public, especially at a time when inflation strains household finances. Stellantis will pay a performance bonus in 2023 ranging from 4,100 to 6,000 euros for each employee, totaling about 1.9 billion euros overall. Additionally, wages will be increased by 4.3%.

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