Stellantis unveiled its first battery-electric vehicle platform Wednesday, one that company leaders said would power future Chrysler and Jeep vehicles.
The STLA Medium platform, one of four that the automaker has committed to producing for EVs, would manage more than 435 miles of range using a 400-volt electric vehicle architecture, the company said in its announcement, noting that body styles would include cars, crossovers and SUVs.
“Owners will be able to take their battery from 20% to 80% charge in 27 minutes, a rate of 2.4 kWh per minute,” the company said.
The platform will be “outstanding in terms of off-roading,” Sebastien Jacquet, Stellantis cross-carline and project engineering senior vice president, said during a news conference, highlighting the connection to future Jeeps.
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The platform will be built first in Europe, beginning this year, where it will power the next generation Peugeot 3008, a compact SUV, and it will also be used in multiple brands there, including Lancia, Opel and DS, according to CEO Carlos Tavares.
The platform will be produced in France, Italy, Germany and multiple locations in North America. The specific North American locations were not disclosed. Other global locations will follow.
Tavares called it a “global platform for a global market,” which he described as a good thing for the company.
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“This is important for us because now we are going to compete on the performance, of course, on the pricing and, of course, on all the attributes that relate to quality, manufacturing and innovation. So we are now entering a highly competitive product, and we are going to make sure we can fight against any competitor that you could imagine,” Tavares said.
The vehicle segments, C and D, in which the platform would be used represent the harshest competition, not just from Tesla, Tavares said, but also from Chinese automakers (China recently overtook Japan as the world’s top global auto exporter).
Those vehicles accounted for 35 million sales in 2022, “nearly half the 78.5 million vehicles sold globally that year. Today, Stellantis brands offer 26 vehicle nameplates in those segments on a variety of platforms,” the company said, noting that up to 2 million vehicles per year can be built on the platform.
Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber.