FCA And PSA Have Renamed Themselves 'Stellantis'

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Groupe PSA have picked the official business name beneath which they’ll juggle all their automotive brands.

The Euro-US mash-up has plumped for Stellantis, inspired by the Latin word ‘stello,’ meaning ‘to brighten with stars. It’s meant to symbolise forward thinking and optimistic progress, and after reading it you’ll no doubt feel your insides flush warm with unexpected excitement and all the promise of dreams come true.

Or, perhaps, you’ll wonder why they went with something that sounds like a good name for a supermarket’s in-house brand of toiletries, or perhaps for an unpleasant skin rash. Got Stellantis? You’ll want some antibacterial cream for that.

We joke, but there’s some merit to the question of why a simpler, less pretentious option wouldn’t have served in a scenario where both sides of the merger were struggling to stay competitive. This is a marriage of financial necessity, after all, in the face of the leviathans of the Volkswagen Group and Toyota Motor Corporation.

No changes will be made to any of the myriad brand names controlled by what will be Stellantis. Press releases and product launches will still come from the usual likes of Dodge, Peugeot, Alfa Romeo and so on. Stellantis will only be used as a corporate brand name, and perhaps its inherent unfamiliarity and awkwardness in having so dramatically changed what people know will actually cause people to take more notice.

The merger is expected to complete in the first few months of 2021, assuming neither group’s shareholders suddenly eject Teddy from the pram. We look forward to seeing what the sparkly new conglomerate does after that.