The Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram retailers watched pricey and older cars pile up on their lots this year, and felt Carlos Tavares wasn't listening.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares abruptly announced his resignation on Sunday after leading the car giant for four years. Its board is already looking for his permanent replacement.

The carmaker said it hopes to conclude a hunt for Tavares’ replacement by the first half of 2025. In the meantime, John Elkann, Stellantis chairman and CEO of its largest shareholder Exor, will lead a new interim executive committee.

Carlos Tavares has resigned as Stellantis CEO after nearly four years, amid plunging electric vehicle sales and rising competition from Chinese car makers. His departure highlights the mounting challenges for legacy carmakers in the EV transition.

Stellantis has been under major scrutiny over the past year due to its extremely poor sales performances, with many of its brands, including its most popular ones, suffering from ailing sales. They were so bad,

Until a new CEO is hired, the company will be led by an interim executive committee chaired by John Elkann. Elkann, the great-great-grandson of Fiat founder Giovanni Agnelli, is Stellantis's chairman and the CEO of the automaker's largest shareholder, the Agnelli family investment vehicle Exor NV.

The company's board moved quickly after Tavares' departure and was unveiling the committee to key stakeholders by Monday morning.

Carlos Tavares has resigned as CEO of Stellantis. Filling the void in his absence is an interim executive committee chaired by John Elkann, according to Stellantis. The company says it will appoint a new chief executive in the first half of 2025.

Stellantis stock lost a further 6% Monday. Despite the challenges, Stellantis’s board had given Tavares its unanimous backing to turn the automaker around as recently as October. Since then, his renewed pursuit of cost savings and other efficiencies inflamed already fractious relations with dealers,

A major shakeup in the auto industry after CEO of Stellantis announced that he is resigning. Stellantis makes Chrysler, Jeep, Fiat, and Peugeot among other auto brands.