The car manufacturer admits that the transition to an all-electric product range will not be as easy as initially thought
May 2, 2024 at 7:20 am
- Stellantis plans to have 75 battery-electric nameplates in its range by 2030.
- The company’s flexible platforms allow it to change its strategy to better meet the needs of its customers.
- Stellantis currently sells the three best-selling plug-in hybrids in the United States
Stellantis has announced that it can offer its future battery-electric vehicles with internal combustion engines if consumers want it. This could start with the upcoming Jeep Wagoneer S.
Like other automakers, Stellantis doesn’t realize that the transition to electric vehicles won’t be as smooth as many had thought. At an event focused on the brand’s first-quarter delivery and financial numbers, Chief Financial Officer Natalie Knight said the Wagoneer S would initially be offered as a BEV, but a hybrid or gasoline-only version could follow if there was demand for it.
Read: The 2025 Jeep Wagoneer S reveals an interior that shows everything on the screens and on the buttons
“Most of our products are either internal combustion engine vehicles or are intended to use our multi-energy platforms,” she said. “Compared to our competitors, this is a great opportunity for us as we have the multi-energy platforms for all of our products in development and the flexibility to switch between them.”
Knight said Stellantis wants to respond to consumer desires while sending a message to the market about its electrification strategy. Of the 25 new vehicles the company is launching this year, 18 will initially be sold as BEVs. Stellantis plans to have 75 battery-electric vehicle types by 2030 and to sell 5 million BEVs annually by the same date.
“Our goal is to put ourselves in a position to, on the one hand, show the market that we know where things are going and that we are very committed to the EV market, but on the other hand also have the flexibility to get there to go and grow where the consumer demand is,” Knight said. “We want to stay close to the consumer and if we see that there is an opportunity in the models that we first introduced as BEVs, we will look at it,” she added, according to WardsAuto.
The brand’s flexibility is already paying off. In the first quarter of 2024, the three best-selling plug-in hybrids in the country were the Jeep Wrangler, Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Hornet.
