{"id":231929,"date":"2022-09-16T15:19:17","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T19:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=231929"},"modified":"2022-09-16T20:58:27","modified_gmt":"2022-09-17T00:58:27","slug":"stellantis-going-full-throttle-on-u-s-ev-program-says-ceo-tavares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2022\/09\/stellantis-going-full-throttle-on-u-s-ev-program-says-ceo-tavares\/","title":{"rendered":"Stellantis Going \u201cFull Throttle\u201d on U.S. EV Program, Says CEO Tavares"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Stellantis is planning \u201ca significant EV blitz,\u201d with 25 all-electric models specifically aimed at the U.S. market, CEO Carlos Tavares said during a meeting with reporters at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Carlos
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, left, said the company’s moving full speed ahead on an onslaught of new electric vehicles.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

That includes battery-electric models for all of its Detroit-based product lines \u2014 Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram \u2014 as well as offerings from import brands such as Alfa Romeo and Maserati. The first of the new EVs is expected to reach showrooms in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to accelerate full throttle\u201d the shift to battery power, said Tavares, noting there will be a number of hybrids coming to the Stellantis line-up as well. In fact, the internal combustion engine is far from dead, the CEO stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. side of the automaker \u2014 formed by the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and France\u2019s Groupe PSA \u2014 has been slow to embrace electrification. Former FCA Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne went as far as asking potential customers not to buy the company\u2019s first all-electric model, the Fiat 500e, because it cost $14,000 more to produce than it could be sold for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Change arrives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Meunier
Meunier Tavares and Morrison and Wagoneer S at NAIAS 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But things began to change with the Jeep brand\u2019s introduction of the Wrangler 4xe \u2014 pronounced \u201c4-by-e.\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/strong> It uses a plug-in hybrid powertrain that not only provides 21 miles of all-electric driving but also delivers significant improvements in the torque needed for aggressive off-road driving. Since its launch last year, the Jeep Wrangler 4xe has become the nation\u2019s best-selling PHEV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SUV brand has launched a second plug-in, the 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe<\/a><\/span><\/strong>. And, earlier this month, it announced plans for its first all-electric models. That includes a subcompact Avenger model for overseas markets, as well as four EVs for the U.S. Those include the Wagoneer S and Recon, as well as two others yet to be revealed, global brand boss Christian Meunier told TheDetroitBureau.com this week. Wagoneer S and Recon will debut in 2024, the other two in 2025, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, the Ram truck brand announced it will launch a battery-powered version of the Ram 1500 pickup in 2024, with other models to include an all-electric van.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chrysler
Chris Feuell, Chrysler Brand CEO, reveals the Chrysler Airflow Graphite Concept, a variation of the brand’s all-electric Airflow Concept.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The commercial BEV market \u201chas accelerated very quickly over the last couple of years,\u201d Mike Koval, the CEO of the Ram brand, told TheDetroitBureau.com in an interview, adding that \u201cThere are a lot of benefits in the commercial space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More battery-electric models on horizon <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The long-struggling Chrysler brand revealed an all-electric concept<\/a><\/span><\/strong> at this year\u2019s Consumer Electronics Show. And, a senior official told TheDetroitBureau.com on background this week, Chrysler\u2019s first all-electric model will be very close in design to that prototype.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The brand is set to go 100% electric by 2028 and, in a one-on-one interview on Wednesday, Tavares said several other EVs are now being developed for Chrysler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Dodge, the muscle car brand will end production of its long-lived Challenger and Charger muscle cars in 2023. It will return to the segment a year later with an all-electric performance model that, the insider confided, is \u201cextremely close\u201d to the design of the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT<\/a><\/span><\/strong> concept revealed last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dodge
Tim Kuniskis, Dodge Brand Chief Executive Officer, unveiled the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT Concept during Dodge Speed Week.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cElectrification will make a fantastic American muscle car,\u201d said Tavares, himself a well-respected semi-professional race driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ICE not completely done<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Despite this push, Stellantis is \u201cbringing new internal combustion engines to market,\u201d but they will be substantially more fuel efficient and lower in emissions than the automaker\u2019s current ICE powertrain line-up, Tavares said during the media roundtable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, the U.S. will shift to 100% battery-electric propulsion, said the Portugese-born executive, but this \u201ctransformation to EVs in the U.S. will take longer than anywhere else\u201d among major industrialized nations such as Europe, Japan and China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All told, Stellantis will invest about $7 billion annually on EVs and software-based technologies during the next five years, said Tavares, about half of the automaker\u2019s total spending on R&D and capital expenditures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long term, the executive declared, \u201cStellantis will be the only credible challenger of Tesla. At some point you will see that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering the flood of new EVs competitors are readying \u2014 with a collective industry investment in electrification of more than $500 billion, according to AlixPartners \u2014 that will be a tough boast to live up to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stellantis is planning \u201ca significant EV blitz,\u201d with 25 all-electric models specifically aimed at the U.S. market. The push is a far cry from the time when FCA was a laggard on the EV front. Get details at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,6,7,8,5,1164,2648,1347,9],"tags":[4414,7424,601,3215,377],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231929"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231929"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231981,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231929\/revisions\/231981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231929"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=231929"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=231929"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=231929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}