While the bureaucrats in Brussels are busy playing “ethical tariffs” dress-up to stop the Asian invasion, the US Supreme Court just threw a wrench into Donald Trump’s protectionist wall. We were promised a fortress of tariffs. We got a legal labyrinth where investments go to die. For a giant like Stellantis, caught between two continents, this isn’t just a “market fluctuation”.
Let’s look at the wreckage. Since its 2024 peak, the Stellantis stock has cratered by 75%. That’s a vertical scream into the abyss. They managed to burn 22.2 billion dollars in valuations in a single day, effectively vaporizing confidence and turning their operating profit into a flatline. Today, Stellantis is the only major player with zero operating profitability.
CEO Antonio Filosa didn’t just inherit a company. He inherited a crime scene. He’s sitting on 46 billion in cash, but let’s be real: liquidity is a seatbelt, not an engine. It’ll help you survive the crash, but it won’t get you out of the ditch. Carlos Tavares was a “visionary” in reverse, a man who mistook blind obedience to green dogma for industrial discipline. He bet the farm on the electric illusion, completely ignoring the most lucid warning of the last twenty years: Sergio Marchionne’s prophecy. Marchionne knew that forcing the market with subsidies instead of real demand was a suicide mission.
Now, all eyes are on February 26. In 72 hours, Ursula von der Leyen will announce her “Industrial Accelerator Act”. If she shows up with more “green pedagogy”, some cosmetic tweaks to CO2 targets, and a few “warm rags” to stop the bleeding, the signal to the markets will be devastating. It will mean Europe has learned nothing.
Moving to Detroit isn’t a “betrayal”, it’s a rational escape to a place where pragmatism still exists and where you can build a multi-energy platform without a regulatory gun to your head. Italy will be the collateral damage. If Europe continues to treat manufacturing as a sin to be taxed rather than an asset to be protected, Stellantis will become an American company with a residual European souvenir shop.
