Stellantis is stronger after year of reckoning, says John Elkann

Stellantis has shifted focus back to improving products after a period of painful cost cuts and it's putting the manufacturer on stronger footing, according to chairman John Elkann. The automaker is enhancing quality, offering more hybrid models and repairing ties with dealers to turn around its business-changes that are already having an effect, Elkann said. Stellantis is chasing a recovery after recording €22.2 billion ($25.7 billion) in charges last month linked to unwinding excessively ambitious bets on electric vehicles.

"I am confident Stellantis will turn the corner," Elkann said in a letter to shareholders of Exor NV, the Fiat-founding Agnelli family's investment company that controls multi-national automaker. A swing to a net loss last year meant that it "became a year of reckoning."