Stellantis gets new Canadian leader

Stellantis announced today that Jeff Hines has been moved from president of Stellantis Canada to head of North American fleet solutions, a new role. Hines will oversee strategy in connectivity, innovation, and technology solutions for fleet buyers, reporting to Michael Ferreira, head of U.S. fleet sales.

Canadian Trevor Longley will take over his role as president of Stellantis Canada, reporting directly to Antonio Filosa. Longley is being hired directly from Nissan, where he held the same position. He had risen through the ranks in Nissan, going through retail, after-sales, and dealer network management, increasing customer satisfaction and operational performance.

Hines had been with Chrysler in 1997, and ran Canadian operations from March 2024 to October 2025.

The change comes in the midst of a trade war, opened by the United States’ demand that Canada become a single American state. This was followed by a 25% import tax imposed by the United States, later changed to obey an existing treaty which is in force through July 2026. This week, the United States broke off talks over Canadian anti-tariff commercials featuring footage of Ronald Reagan talking about the benefits of free trade. The U.S. president declared the footage to be fake (is is not) and broke off talks. The CTC then reported that Canada will add 25% counter-tariffs to vehicles imported from the United States, excepting those covered by the treaty; they will allow some exceptions for companies which continue to produce cars locally and make planned investments. The exceptions may be related to Stellantis’ likely closure of the Brampton plant and GM’s shutting down its BrightDrop van plant.

Canada has a trade agreement with Mexico and is lining up agreements with nearly everyone else in the world. In the past, Chrysler, FCA, and then Stellantis had a higher market share in Canada than in the United States.

David Zatz

David Zatz started what was to become the world’s biggest Mopar site (Allpar) in 1994. After a chemo-induced 2007-2010 break, during which he wrote car books covering Vipers, minivans, and Jeeps, he returned with Patrick Rall to create StellPower.com for daily news, and to set up MoTales for mo’ tales (Chrysler history and “permanent” car and truck pages). He most recently wrote Century of Chrysler, a 100-year retrospective on the marque.