For his first year at the head of the Stellantis Group, themanaging director Carlos Tavares visited two Italian factories, namely those of Termoli and Pratola Serra in the province of Avellino, where the new Euro 7 diesel engine will be produced. During the visit to the Termoli site, the CEO talked about various issues including that of electrification , expressing a very critical position on the politics that forced the transition to this form of mobility. Tavares is then went to Pratola Serra, in the province of Avellino, where he provided new interesting details on the Group’s strategy. It must be remembered that the new industrial plan will be officially presented on 1 March 2022.
Speaking to the works council steering committee, the CEO of Stellantis has confirmed the Group’s investment of 30 billion euros for electrification, not hiding the ambitious growth targets for the next few years.
Stellantis, the Euro 7 diesel engine does not exclude investments in electricity
Although the Group is working on electrification, there will still be room for traditional engines, including diesel ones. In particular, a new Euro 7 diesel engine called B.B2, currently in an advanced stage of planning. Apparently, in 14-15 months it will be ready to be fitted to Stellantis-branded cars and commercial vehicles. Therefore, we will see the diesel unit inside several cars of the automotive group.
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares
And returning to the topic of electrification, Tavares stated that soon all the brands of the Stellantis Group will have at least one 100% electric vehicle on the list. To achieve electrification goals, from 2024 production of hybrid and electric vehicles will begin at all Stellantis factories.
The arrival of production of the new diesel engine is certainly good news per the relaunch of the Pratola Serra production site where components for electrified cars will also be manufactured. Obviously Tavares continues to be perplexed about the policies “imposed” by the European Union that strongly push towards electric mobility. A process that could exclude the middle class who may not be able to buy an electric car given the higher costs.