French-Italian car maker Stellantis on Wednesday denied a report in Corriere della Sera daily that it planned to name outgoing Apple finance chief Luca Maestri as its new chief executive. "It is not true,

Stellantis' Chairman John Elkann plans to name Luca Maestri, the outgoing CFO of Apple, as the new CEO of the Italian-French carmaker after Sunday's shock resignation of Carlos Tavares, newspaper Corriere della Sera reported.

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.

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,