Stellantis' new plan accelerates global launches, expands industrial alliances and provides restructuring to reduce idle capacity at factories
The first five-year plan presented by CEO Antonio Filosa, who led the company in Brazil between 2021 and 2025, foresees profound changes in relation to predecessor Carlos Tavares. Now the company will accelerate the launch schedules of 60 new models by 2030 with combustion, hybrid and electric engines, as well as solve the problem of industrial overcapacity that affects almost all vehicle industries around the world.
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The strategy is to cut waste by simplifying platforms and expanding shared production partnerships with China’s Leapmotor and Dongfeng, India’s Tata Motors and England’s Jaguar Land Rover. In Europe alone, the French-Italian-German-American group has a spare capacity of 800,000 units per year and some manufacturing units may be closed. In the U.S., there are also plans to reduce factory idleness.
Filosa stressed that the partnerships will optimize the use of existing production capacities, improve competitiveness in purchases of auto parts and electronic components, share investments in research and development, in addition to accessing markets in which the participation of the brand conglomerate can still grow.
In South America, the company led by Brazilian Herlander Zola has leading positions in Brazil and Argentina, but intends to increase sales by 10% by 2030. In addition to the new compact Argo, the Strada, Toro and Rampage pickups will be renewed and the Avenger compact SUV will be launched.
The return of vegetable fuel was anticipated by the Webmotors website based on information from dealerships. GM’s silence indicates that the launch will take place in the coming weeks and will also include the Onix Plus Eco sedan. Since 2006, engines designed to consume only ethanol have not left the assembly lines. This occurred because flex-fuel engines appeared in 2003 and expanded rapidly due to the driver’s choice for the lowest cost/km, which, however, varies according to the agricultural cycles of sugarcane production. Hydrous ethanol is competitive when it costs 23% less than current regular gasoline with 30% anhydrous ethanol.
The American brand soon realized that the Federal Government had granted a tax stimulus for ethanol-only engines through the Mover program and took advantage of the fact that its entry-level engines use indirect fuel injection and, therefore, lower production cost. This allowed it to reach very competitive prices of R$ 103.990 for the hatch and R$ 106.990 for the sedan. Both include a six-speed automatic transmission and are especially attractive for cars used by taxi drivers and drivers of apps such as Uber and 99. These do not need SUVs that are fashionable, but more expensive.
It remains to be seen whether other manufacturers will also take advantage of the opportunity or whether, for reasons of production costs and the fact that the price of ethanol is not so competitive outside the states that produce the vegetable fuel throughout the year, they will leave the two GM models without competitors.
With the suggestive name of Detail Land, the fair held last weekend showed that there is a growing market for this activity. The event was entirely dedicated to the news and technologies of aesthetics for vehicles. The idea came up in Jundiaí, 55 km from the capital of São Paulo, on the initiative of businessman Cláudio Rossoni. After four annual editions, it migrated to São Paulo and in two days attracted about 22,000 people.
In total, it had 53 exhibitors and 65 brands dedicated to customization, body wrapping, paint care and specific unconventional accessories. That is, concentration on the details that attract more and more interested parties, as is the case abroad. In the next edition, in May 2027, the exhibition area will double from 6,000 to 12,000 m2.
