Stellantis outlined a four-year, €30-billion ($35.5-billion) investment program for electric vehicle and software development and setting targets to increase low-emission vehicle sales to 70% of its European sales and 40% of its U.S. sales, by 2030. "The strategy we laid out today focuses the right amount of investment on the right technology to reach the market at the right time,” stated CEO Carlos Tavares, “ensuring that Stellantis powers the freedom of movement in the most efficient, affordable, and sustainable way."
The group recently committed to upgrade a U.K. assembly plant as its first battery-electric vehicle plant, for cars and commercial vehicles for its Vauxhall, Opel, Peugeot, and Citroën brands.
The automaker emphasized that the broader investment program encompasses all of its 14 vehicle brands, coordinating their individual product offerings around four battery-electric vehicle platforms – small (300-mile range), medium (440 miles), large (500 miles), and “frame” (commercial vehicles, 500-mile range.)
Each platform will offer flexibility for vehicle length and width, along with component sharing, for production of up to 2 million units annually.
Supporting its BEV programs, Stellantis aims to source 130 gigawatt hours of EV battery production capacity by 2025, and more than 260 GWH of capacity by 2030. It will establish five "gigafactories" in Europe and North America, with additional supply contracts and partnerships as total demand may require.
The overall investment includes development costs for lithium-ion battery technology. Stellantis has memos of understanding (MOUs) with two lithium geothermal brine process partners, in North America and Europe, for its lithium supplies, and asserted that its own “technical expertise and manufacturing synergies” will drive down the cost of EV batteries.
