Stellantis to bring three EVs to Australia in 2022, but “Dare Forward” campaign on trickle charge

Stellantis, the European car giant that owns 14 major auto brands including Chrysler, Jeep, Peugeot, Fiat and Ram, is to release three fully electric vehicles into the Australian market this year, but its overall EV sales performance still trails the company’s “Dare Forward” marketing rhetoric.

The company delivered spectacular profit results this week – showing €179.6 billion in revenue and net profits of €16.8 billion  for 2022. But all this is based around its fossil fuel inventory, the EVs make up just 4.8 per cent of its sales, a fraction of the EV share in the major markets in which it operates.

“In addition to our record financial results and the focused execution of the Dare Forward 2030 strategic plan, we also demonstrated the effectiveness of our electrification strategy in Europe,” CEO Carlos Tavares said in a statement.

“We now have the technology, the products, the raw materials, and the full battery ecosystem to lead that same transformative journey in North America, starting with our first fully electric Ram vehicles from 2023 and Jeep from 2024.”

In Australia, there are currently no EVs on offer from any of the Stellantis brands. However, the company says that we will see fully electric models added to the Australian range this year. These include an all electric Jeep Grand Cherokee 5 seater in Q2, the Fiat 500e in Q2 and the Alfa Romeo Tonale in the second half of the year.

No details were given as the the quantities that will arrive.

Multiple new EV models launched in 2022

In 2022, Stellantis started to ramp up its EV offerings, with the launch of the first ever fully electric Jeep Avenger SUV and all-electric Ram 1500, which will be available in some markets in late 2024.

The company says it’s “on pace” to deliver on its “Dare Forward 2030” strategic plan commitments, while working to preserve “freedom of mobility” (which we see as code for freedom to continue selling our petrol and diesel cars).

Stellantis says its Dare Forward 2030 EV strategy has the ambition of doubling its net revenue to €300 billion (as compared to 2021).

In the statement the company said that its BEV sales grew 41% in 2022 to 288,000 globally, from the  23 BEV models it has on offer. It says the number of EV models will double to 47 by the end of 2024 moving towards its 2030 goal of producing 5 million BEVs across 75 models.

Much EV talk, not much action yet

While the company’s earnings report was full of pro EV rhetoric, the numbers tell a slightly different story.

The top line numbers in the earnings report didn’t include total global vehicle sales which were 5.98 million for 2022. This means that BEVs made up just 4.8% of Stellantis’s global production, and petrol and diesel cars still make up 95% of all Stellantis brands’ sales.

The share of EVs in the overall market in Europe is now 20 per cent, so Stellantis is trailing well behind its rivals.

The company also claims to be “No. 1 in EU30 Commercial Vehicle BEV sales and No. 2 in EU30 for overall BEV sales”. Statistics which sound impressive until you learn that EU30 countries don’t include the 5 largest European markets of Germany, France, UK, Spain and Italy.

CEO’s past comments raise questions

Tavares has in the past complained about being forced to make EVs and not knowing how to profit from them.

In December 2021 the Stellantis CEO said that the electric vehicle cost burden is ‘beyond the limits‘ for automakers. This is despite Tesla making record automotive industry margins of over 15% on each vehicle, and it raises questions about his ability to lead the “Dare Forward” EV strategy and doubling its net revenues to €300 billion.

Will Stellantis be able to bridge the EV gap and get ahead of the game? Or is it all just rhetoric?