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Merged FCA and PSA to be known as Stellantis

It's a weird name, sure, but when you're going to be as big as this post-merger company, you can call yourself whatever you want.

Kyle Hyatt Former news and features editor
Kyle Hyatt (he/him/his) hails originally from the Pacific Northwest, but has long called Los Angeles home. He's had a lifelong obsession with cars and motorcycles (both old and new).
Kyle Hyatt
2 min read
PSA-FCA merger signing

The merger is taking a while to navigate, but now it has a new name.

FCA

The megamerger of Fiat Chrysler and Groupe PSA has been in the works for quite some time now, and I guess we at Roadshow always assumed that if and when they finished it, it would be called something boring like "FCPSA." As we learned via Twitter on Wednesday, it isn't.

Instead, according to a tweet from the FCA Group account, the new entity will be called Stellantis. If you're looking at your phone or computer and loudly asking,"That's what they came up with?" you're not alone.

The name comes from the Latin word stello, which means "to brighten with stars." The last half of it -- the "lantis" part -- brings to mind a certain mythical city that famously sank beneath the sea and was lost forever. I don't want to cast aspersions, but that doesn't seem as though it was well thought-out, branding-wise.

In any case, we're going to take this as a sign that things are going well with the formation of the largest automotive producer on Earth, even if the deal isn't totally done. The two companies announced their combination agreement in December last year, and according to the FCA press release, the hunt for a new name began soon after.

The combined automaker will operate a huge number of brands. On FCA's side, it brings American marques Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram; and Italian brands Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Maserati. PSA operates brands probably more familiar to European drivers than those in the US: Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Vauxhall and Opel.

Stellantis will only be used as a group name -- it won't be used as an individual brand for vehicles.

FCA and PSA declined to offer further comment.