Stellantis reveals the cost of switching to electric

It's... quite a lot...

26w ago
21.1K

One of the biggest hurdles the car industry is going to have to overcome when it switches to an electric future is the huge costs involved. This cost is related to various different stages of the switch to electric, including developing new electric cars and powertrains and re-jigging the entire model lineup to be compatible with a world where the sale of new ICE cars is going to be banned in several different countries. Stellantis (the mega-corporation which owns the Citroen, Peugeot, Vauxhall, Opel, Abarth, Fiat, Dodge and Chrysler brands) has now revealed how much it'll cost them to go fully electric and it adds up to quite a lot of money!

Stellantis thinks that it'll cost 30 million euros to convert its entire fleet of vehicles to electric by 2028, two years earlier than most other big companies are aiming. This comes on top of an already existing pledge of £100 million (including UK taxpayer support of up to £30 million) to convert its Ellesmere Port factory into a production centre for its electric vans, saving the plant and the jobs linked to it in the process. The money will be spent to create a new generation of electric vehicles which can travel up to 500 miles on a single charge, in a bid to eliminate as much of the range anxiety as possible from living with an electric car.

Stellantis has also said that it has plans to create 5 'gigafactories' in mainland Europe to create batteries for its electric vehicles. Whilst none of these Stellantis gigafactories will be in the UK, they will directly support its UK manufacturing at Ellesmere Port and Luton.

Is this huge amount of expense a wake-up call for car companies who are being forced to switch to a fully-electric lineup before the 2030s and 2040s? Probably. Going electric certainly won't be cheap for anyone. If the trade-off though is a more sustainable model lineup and a more sustainable business, it's a high price that'll definitely be worth paying.

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Comments (20)

  • Those figures sound very low, I wonder if The Times is reporting it correctly? VAG has said they are investing around $80B, so a few $100Ms by Stellantis doesn't sound right. While it may be a painful cost it has to be done, while cars are only part of getting CO2 down and eventually to net zero, they are a big part.

      6 months ago
  • Yeah this can’t be right. Billions not millions.

      6 months ago
  • Electric cars are NOT the future, they will be part of it for sure.

    Take a look at this 😉

    youtu.be/19Q7nAYjAJY

      6 months ago
    • just wait until an overdue CME occurs and see how well those electric cars operate.

        5 months ago
    • You mean a solar storm?….. hadn’t really thought of that 🤔 but I think we will have a lot of free time on our hands after a big one…. No 5G… or any G… no cellphone means more free time.. more time to wrench on our ICE cars 👍🏻

        5 months ago
  • It is all well and good converting current factories to make EVs and building new battery factories abroad but the two can never meet as i believe it’s very difficult to transport the l-ion batteries when they are not fitted in their end product I.e car/van etc hence why only the Nissan Leaf is built in this country. Nissan is building a battery factory in the uk though to get round this.

      5 months ago
  • yeah it would be fine if it was coming due to the need to improve, yet they arent. The government is forcing them on people. EVs are putrid junk. They arent the future, and wont be for atleast another 10 years.

      5 months ago
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