Stellantis: Strongly increasing demand for hybrids - Rollback in Europe

Often Already Standard in the Models

Most hybrid vehicles from Stellantis brands in Europe are equipped with eDCT hybrid technology, including a 21 kW electric motor, enabling short purely electric driving. The 48-volt battery with 0.9 kilowatt-hours allows a range of up to one kilometer at a steady driving speed and can provide some electric propulsion when driving with light load or coasting. When coasting and braking, the electric motor switches to generator mode and feeds kinetic energy into the battery. A belt-driven starter generator ensures a smooth transition between electric and hybrid mode. CO₂ emissions are expected to decrease by up to 20 percent compared to a combustion engine with automatic transmission. Thanks to its modular design, the innovative eDCT concept can also be installed in electric vehicles, with 93% of the components being identical. Only the electric drive module and the inverter need to be replaced. Currently, Stellantis produces hybrid vehicles in more than 70% of its European plants. As part of the eTransmissions joint venture, Stellantis and its partner are currently building eDCTs in Metz (France) and Turin (Italy), supplying eleven vehicle manufacturing plants. The production capacity is more than 1.2 million eDCTs per year.

The group is investing more than 50 billion euros worldwide in electrification over the next ten years to achieve the goals of the strategy plan "Dare Forward 2030": By 2030, 100% of car sales in Europe and 50% of car and light commercial vehicle sales in the United States are to be BEVs. To meet these sales targets, the company is securing a battery capacity of around 400 gigawatt-hours provided by battery factories in North America and Europe.

What Does This Mean?

Whether these goals can be achieved in light of the current hybrid boom, especially in Europe, remains uncertain for Stellantis. The roll-back sets Europe far behind, leaving China and the Asian brands, as well as the USA, to lead the pace of electrification. For it is clear: Even if a hybrid consumes 20 percent less than a pure combustion engine - 20 percent is not enough given the worsening climate crisis. The zero-emission potential of pure electric vehicles remains completely untapped, which, moreover, become cleaner over their lifecycle with an increasingly greener electricity mix. A long-lasting product like a car stays in the world for 15 years - and thus emits CO2 until 2040. This is not a good perspective. European politicians urgently need to abandon their shortsighted populism, because they achieve the opposite of what they always claim: They do not benefit their countries and the European location, but harm them. It's now or never. Otherwise, the EU will shoot itself into a technological off-road - and soon the Euro-metropolises will look like the streets of Havana.