He was intrigued by the Italian pilot Arnaldo Cavallari, who took de Meo for a ride in his Lancia Fulvia HF.

[21] Luca de Meo spent four years developing Volkswagen's brand, to make it reach a high operating profit in 2017.

[33][34] In January 2021, de Meo presented "Renaulution", the new strategic plan for Renault Group articulated in three phases: Resurrection, Renovation and Revolution.

[39][40] In 2022, it was announced that Renault Group started to witness a financial improvement and de Meo managed to turn around the company in 18 months.

[47][48] Luca de Meo intends to occupy the high-segment with this brand,[49] relaunched as part of the second version of the Renaulution plan.

[51] In 2023, de Meo's strategy was bringing about results as Renault's operating margin increased to 5.6% for the past year, compared to only 2.8% in 2021.

[53][54] Two and a half years after, Luca de Meo managed to make the Group witness a financial recovery.

[67] In December 2022, Luca de Meo was elected to chair the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) in 2023,[20] succeeding the President of BMW Group, Oliver Zipse.

[68] As the President of ACEA, Luca de Meo asserted the need for measures that would support the association's aim of 'decarbonization' to be able to defy the 'growing global competition'.

[71] In July 2015,[72][73] de Meo was named "commendatore" by the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, and Harvard University dedicated a case study to him in 2013, for his work in the Volkswagen Group as Marketing Director.

[74] In 2017, he was named Bocconi Alumnus of the Year, for representing the university values of professionalism, initiative, integrity, responsibility and openness to pluralism.

[9] His competences in leadership are said to be in marketing, product planning, having attention to detail and avoiding conflict, while he lacks an engineering background.

[78] In December 2022, Luca de Meo received the Chevalier (Knight) rank of the French Legion of honor.