Stellantis, the parent company that owns, amongst others, the brands Alfa Romeo, Citroen, Chrysler, Fiat, Ram, and Jeep, is planning on taking a stake in hydrogen mobility company, Symbio. The acquisition will see Stellantis join Michelin and French automotive parts manufacturer Faurecia in taking a major slice of Symbio.

At the end of 2022, Symbio announced its HyMotive project with the goal of greatly increasing its hydrogen fuel-cell system production. The company’s StackPack systems are available for use for tracks, vans, buses, and a range of other equipment, and Symbio plans to reach a production capacity of 200,000 StackPacks per year by 2030.
Stellantis has faith in hydrogen fuel cell use and is pursuing its use as part of its Dare Forward strategic plan, which includes expanding its hydrogen offering to large vans as early as 2024 in Europe and 2025 in the U.S. while further exploring opportunities for heavy-duty trucks.

“Symbio’s technical roadmap perfectly matches with Stellantis’ hydrogen roll-out plans in Europe and in the U.S.,” said Carlos Tavares, Stellantis CEO. “This move will foster the speed of development to bring low emission products to our customers, beyond traditional electric vehicles. We’re grateful to the teams at Faurecia, Michelin and Symbio for their commitment to innovation, excellence, and collaboration as we all work to achieve decarbonised mobility.”

Stellantis has also announced it has finalised its acquisition of aiMotive, a developer of artificial intelligence and autonomous driving software.
Stellantis currently is developing STLA Autodrive which will offer Level 2, 2+ and 3 autonomous driving capabilities and which will be upgradeable via Over-The-Air updates.

“The acquisition of ai Motive will accelerate our journey to become a sustainable mobility tech company and deliver our Dare Forward 2030 goals,” said Yves Bonnefont, Stellantis Chief Software Officer. “Thanks to aiMotive’s world-class expertise, we will enhance our artificial intelligence and autonomous driving core technology, expand our global talent pool, and foster the mid-term development of our all-new STLA AutoDrive platform.”

Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (February 2023)

8 February 2023