With FCA and PSA Merger: Stellantis Has a Promising Electric Future
In a decision that might take some warming up to, FCA and PSA Group have merged. Instead of calling themselves SCAPAF Group, or some other fun anagram, they decided to rebrand as Stellantis. Fortunately for them electrification will be the wind in their sales going forward.
There’s a lot to unpack with the EV outlook of the Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Peugeot, Citroën, DS, and Opel/Vauxhall brands. Let’s start with the European stuff first.
The first half of 2020 saw a decrease in car sales of astonishing proportion. PSA sold 45.7% less cars in that time than they did the year prior. However, they’ve introduced new electric models for their brands, and in turn their EV sales rose year-over-year in massive ways.
PSA sold 24,482 EVs, which is nearly 5.5 times the 3,808 they sold in the first half of last year. This mirrors trends of other companies, who have had EV sales rise as total sales are decimated. It doesn’t take a smart person to see they’ll double down on electrification as incentives and consumers move in that direction.
As for FCA, well they’re a little further behind on electrification, but they aren’t completely clueless. Recently their head of passenger vehicles, Tim Kuniskis, showed off their newest SRT Hellcat vehicles. The next day, he was making headlines by saying EVs are the future of performance.
Surprisingly, FCA actually has a massive vehicle-to-grid charging station, powered by solar, going up in Italy. You can presumably thank the Fiat people, but it’s a massively impactfull project, and means they’re wearing thinking caps over in FCA European offices.
Similarly, Jeep has announced their upcoming PHEV versions of the Renegade and Compass, which will be known as 4xe. They’ll be AWD, thanks to their new motors, and likely do well. It’s a step in the right direction for Jeep, and should open the door for full EVs.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the Dodge Charger needs to be electric. The budget performance demographic needs to have a suitable muscle car other than grandma’s Mach-e. Those drivers need to be converted to electric for the good of the world, and the pun-gods simply won’t have it any other way!
The international brands should open up the minds of FCA a little when it comes to EVs. PSA will help them get there, even if slowly at first. All said, Stellantis should become a key player in EV circles.
