Top comment by Ian Ollmann
40% by 2030 will be a laggard position and seems incompatible with market leadership. So either this is a cynical play at taking market share by being the last to ship ICE pickups to an ornery and foot dragging market, or Stellatis is just mindlessly throwing buzzword compliant vaporware out there to see what sticks, quite innocent of any knowledge of other automakers plans. There are not many Stellantis EVs available to point to and little reason to believe they will suddenly leap out ahead of the crowd.
We do own a Chrysler Pacifica PHEV. It has a reasonably large electric range for a PHEV which is nice, but is quite frustrating in that it frequently decides its gas is too old and will refuse to use the electric drive until we put more in. Recently my wife and I bought a second Tesla, and now the minivan largely just sits in the driveway. To my chagrin, this has in practice meant that the minivan is now functionally a simple ICE car with 1000 lbs of unused electrical equipment weighing it down and driving up cost. Since the minivan just sits in the driveway, the gas is always old and it never uses the electric drive! Don’t know why we still own this car. Chrysler had a lot to learn.
I think in retrospect that if the electric car has an ignition switch or an on button of any kind, the buyer should be immediately suspicious that the maker doesn’t get it and they are signing up for a frustrating car to own. Just walk away.
Stellantis, parent company of Fiat, Ram, and Peugeot, announced its plans to overtake Ford as the global number-one seller of pickup trucks and vans within the next four years, and it’s hoping electrification will take it there.
Stellantis says it is eyeing major growth in Africa and midsized businesses to boost its numbers and plans to double revenues from vans and pickups by 2030.
Most importantly, Stellantis is aiming for 40% of its global commercial vehicles sold worldwide in 2030 to be electric or hydrogen-powered. Currently in Europe, 43% of its sales of vans are electric, leading the way among its competitors in the region. Still, it has work to do in the US.
Globally, light commercial vehicles (LCVs) already account for about half of the company’s profits and a third of its revenue. Last year, its commercial vehicle unit sold 1.6 million vehicles, just 400,000 vehicles short of Ford. This year it is expecting a total of 1.8 million vehicles sold and has announced the creation of a new unit, called Pro One, to oversee its LCV business.
“We want to be number one in LCVs,” said Jean-Philippe Imparato, head of the Stellantis new commercial vehicles business unit and former head of Peugeot. “The LCV’s Champions League is Ford, us and Toyota. To be number one we must beat Ford.”
Stellantis is currently the top seller of LCVs in Europe and South America and plans to revamp its lineup of 12 vans for the Fiat, Peugeot, Citroen, and Opel/Vauxhall brands. According to the press release, the company will reveal the new lineup October 23, featuring “second-generation zero-emission powertrains, a unique hydrogen solution, full connectivity and top-level autonomous driving assistance systems.”
Core to its mission to overtake Ford and its almighty F-150 in the US is the upcoming electric Ram 1500 pickup truck, alongside two other Ram pickup models planned for the next two years featuring either fully electric or hydrogen power.
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