Stellantis is collaborating with researchers, scientists and engineers around the world – one of the largest networks of cooperative innovation – to speed the development and implementation of ground-breaking technologies to help the Company deliver the goals of the Dare Forward 2030 strategic plan, including reaching carbon net zero emissions by 2038.
With more than three decades working with public institutions, other R&D centers, academies and various stakeholders, Stellantis is capitalizing on that experience by building one of the biggest and widest collaborative ecosystems in the world, which today numbers 164 running projects and over 1,000 different partners involved worldwide.
These projects can combine private and public funding, bringing together the expertise of Stellantis’ extensive technical community and top-tier institutions with their highly skilled talent, to seek solutions to the most-challenging issues in global mobility. Together, Stellantis and its unprecedented collaborations are building the common roadmap to cutting-edge freedom of mobility.
“Addressing the complexity of tomorrow’s mobility requires innovation. Our open approach, based on a global collaborative ecosystem, covering the most challenging technical topics, allows us to advance knowledge and focus on pre-competitive research that can eventually and positively impact the mobility world,” said Ned Curic, Stellantis Chief Technology Officer. “We are stronger and more creative when we work together, especially when we join forces with some of the world’s best partners and researchers. This pioneering spirit is key to the transformation of Stellantis into a well-recognized tech company and helps us find breakthrough answers to technical challenges, answers that help our customers, our company and our society.”
Stellantis teams from Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain are working in cooperation with other stakeholders on common and harmonized goals. Each collaborative, co-funded project can last up to four years.
In addition, other Stellantis teams in Brazil, China, India and the United States are proactively involved in pre-competitive research with industry stakeholders, contributing in-kind resources to address technical issues.
The roster of global collaborative projects is aligned with Stellantis’ strategic technical domains, which include:
- Autonomous driving and connectivity
- Body, chassis and interior
- Electrification technologies and advanced propulsion
- Manufacturing
- Materials
Examples of current collaborative projects:
Hi-Drive (Autonomous driving and connectivity): Bringing together automakers, technology suppliers, universities and research institutes, Hi-Drive is the leading European project on automated driving. It is exploring and testing solutions for vehicle connectivity, high-precision vehicle positioning, cybersecurity and machine learning to cover a wide range of traffic environments.
Thermal Comfort Research (Body, chassis and interior): This collaboration aims to develop new systems and strategies for the management of heat inside vehicles while minimizing energy consumption, a key factor for extending the range of BEVs.
CEVOLVER (Electrification technologies and advanced propulsion): Project CEVOLVER (Connected Electric Vehicle Optimized for Life, Value, Efficiency and Range) takes a user-centric approach for optimizing the development and operation of electric vehicles and uses cutting edge technologies, components and systems. The project leverages opportunities of connectivity to the computational capabilities of big data.
ODIN (Manufacturing): To strengthen European Union production companies’ confidence in using advanced robotics, ODIN brings technology from the latest groundbreaking research to demonstrate that novel robot-based production systems are technically feasible, efficient and sustainable for immediate introduction on the shop floor.
Forest-Comp (Materials): This research project evaluates the use of renewable and non-renewable forest resources to mass produce bio-composites, which could be used for interior trim or acoustic insulation in vehicles.
SOURCE: Stellantis
