Tag Archives: Stellantis

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Stellantis and Bolt Team Up to Put Driverless Ride-Hailing on Europe’s Streets

In a move that could accelerate Europe’s autonomous mobility race, Stellantis and Bolt have announced a new partnership aimed at deploying Level 4 driverless vehicles across the continent. It’s a pairing that blends Stellantis’ hardware muscle with Bolt’s sprawling mobility network, and if all goes according to plan, it could make robotaxis a familiar sight on European roads by the end of the decade.

A Marriage of Platform and Platform

Stellantis is bringing its AV-Ready Platforms™ to the table — specifically the eK0 medium-size van architecture and the STLA Small platform. These aren’t pie-in-the-sky concepts. They’re engineered from the chassis up for sensor integration, high-performance compute modules, and the stack of redundancies required to meet stringent European safety standards. That last part is critical: Level 4 means the vehicle must be able to operate without a human fallback under defined conditions.

Bolt, meanwhile, provides the ecosystem. The company’s app-based ride-hailing operation spans more than 50 countries, including 23 EU member states. It has the customer base, the routing intelligence, and the operational footprint to actually put autonomous fleets to work. Bolt has publicly stated a long-term goal of introducing 100,000 autonomous vehicles to its platform by 2035 — and Stellantis may serve as the hardware foundation for a portion of that fleet.

From Test Mules to Production Reality

The roadmap is ambitious but not reckless. Stellantis and Bolt expect to begin on-road trials in select European markets as early as 2026. Think limited prototypes, geofenced zones, and a healthy amount of regulatory oversight. From there, the rollout transitions to pilot fleets and, if the data looks good, industrial-scale production with an initial target set for 2029.

This phased approach isn’t just strategic — it’s essential. Europe has some of the world’s toughest safety, data protection, and cybersecurity frameworks. Both companies say they plan to work hand-in-hand with regulators to make sure the system meets or exceeds every requirement along the way.

Why It Matters

For Stellantis, this is another brick in its global driverless strategy — and a chance to expand an ecosystem of partners focused on autonomy at scale. Its AV-Ready Platforms™ are designed to be cost-effective for operators, which could help make autonomous fleets economically viable instead of merely experimental.

For Bolt, the partnership is a leap toward its futuristic fleet vision. Bolt has always leaned into efficient, shared mobility rather than solo ownership, and autonomy aligns perfectly with that ethos.

What the Leaders Are Saying

Antonio Filosa, Stellantis CEO, frames the partnership as both practical and ecological:
“Our AV-Ready Platforms™ are designed for maximum flexibility, so we can deliver the best possible experience for European customers. Autonomous fleets can also contribute to a lower carbon footprint by enabling a shared and optimized mobility, reducing congestion and emissions. Partnering with Bolt is intended to bring this vision closer to reality.”

Bolt’s founder and CEO, Markus Villig, highlights the European focus:
“This partnership brings together two companies who understand the specific dynamics of operating in Europe. By combining Stellantis’ AV-Ready Platforms™ and our operational expertise, we plan to create the best autonomous vehicle offering that is tailored for European needs, in line with European standards.”

The Stellantis–Bolt collaboration won’t put fleets of Level 4 vans on the road overnight. But it signals something equally important: the transition from autonomous R&D to autonomous deployment. With trials slated for 2026 and production targeted for 2029, Europe’s ride-hailing landscape may look dramatically different by the time Bolt’s 2035 goal rolls around.

If the partnership delivers as promised, it could mark one of the most significant steps toward everyday driverless mobility that Europe has seen yet.

Source: Stellantis

News

Stellantis Shows Off the Next Leap in Automated Driving at Hi-Drive Brussels

If you want a glimpse at the road ahead—one where your car reads the world as fluently as you do—Stellantis just offered a clear window into that future. At the Hi-Drive Final Event in Brussels, the global automaker laid out its most advanced automated-driving tech yet, and it’s aimed squarely at tackling the messy, unpredictable, very real world the rest of us drive in every day.

Hi-Drive, Europe’s flagship automation program, is built around one mission: move automated driving beyond the carefully manicured test route and into the gritty, chaotic mix of urban streets, highways, and everything in between. The project’s researchers aren’t just building smarter cars—they’re trying to prove those cars can behave reliably, safely, and intelligently in the wild.

“Hi-Drive is a great example of open innovation,” said Anne Laliron, Stellantis’s SVP of Technology Research. She emphasized that collaboration with Europe’s leading tech and research players is helping the company accelerate automated driving from lab theory to practical mobility. And at Brussels, Stellantis backed that up with metal—and a whole lot of sensors.

Two Test Cars, Two Approaches to the Future

Stellantis brought two “Living Lab” cars to demonstrate how its next-gen systems are taking shape.

Peugeot e-2008 Prototype
Sitting under a rooftop sensor stack that looks ready to map Mars, the e-2008 bristles with hardware: eight lidars, nine cameras, four radars, plus both short-range and cellular V2X communications. This isn’t gadget overload—it’s how the car builds a 360-degree view of its world. The setup is designed for dense urban environments, where automated systems must identify everything from cyclists weaving between lanes to sudden pedestrian crossings.

Maserati Levante (MY2018) Prototype
The Levante, on the other hand, focused on high-definition mapping and V2X communication. Using digital-signal messaging from infrastructure and other vehicles, it can interpret hazard alerts, react to dynamic road signage, and generally stay far more aware than any system relying on onboard sensors alone. The goal: driving that’s safer because the car knows more than what’s visible through the windshield.

Why Connectivity Is the Real Secret Sauce

If automated driving has a backbone, Stellantis believes it’s advanced connectivity. Short-range communication, 5G cellular networks, and high-speed data exchange will allow future automated vehicles—not just Stellantis’s—to feed each other traffic info, road conditions, and safety alerts.

In other words: your next car won’t just see the world. It’ll talk about it.

What Stellantis Is Doing Right Now

While Level 4 driverless vehicles are still in development, Stellantis is focusing on practical, usable tech today. That includes real-time traffic updates, driver-assist safety systems, and Level 2+ hands-free highway features—tools meant to ease the mental load rather than take over entirely.

But the company clearly has no intention of stopping there. It has two major parallel collaborations pushing toward scalable robotaxi-level autonomy:

  • NVIDIA, Uber, and Foxconn
  • Pony.ai

Both programs will run on Stellantis’s new AV-Ready Platform™, the company’s flexible architecture built to underpin a wide range of autonomous passenger and commercial vehicles.

The Big Picture

Stellantis isn’t just chasing a buzzword future of “smart mobility.” The company is investing heavily in automated driving as a long-term strategy—one that sees future cities where vehicles are cleaner, safer, more aware, and increasingly driverless.

If the tech shown in Brussels is any indication, Stellantis is betting that the next generation of mobility won’t just assist the driver… it may replace the driver altogether.

Source: Stellantis

News

Stellantis Names Veteran Engineer Olivier Jansonnie as New Motorsport Chief, Ushering In a New Era of Competition

Stellantis is shaking up its racing hierarchy—and betting big on a proven engineering heavyweight. Beginning January 31, 2026, Olivier Jansonnie will take the helm of Stellantis Motorsport, succeeding longtime motorsport architect Jean-Marc Finot. For a group whose portfolio spans everything from DS Formula E titles to Peugeot’s renewed Le Mans ambitions, this leadership change isn’t just administrative—it’s strategic.

A Quiet, Calculated Power Move

If the name Olivier Jansonnie rings a bell, it’s because he’s been behind some of the most technically demanding programs in modern racing. A graduate of Centrale-Supélec, Jansonnie arrives with more than 25 years of cross-disciplinary motorsport experience—LMP1, Hypercar, WRC, WRX, Cross-Country, DTM—and the résumé reads like a highlight reel of the last two decades of factory-backed motorsport evolution.

Jansonnie cut his teeth at Peugeot Sport in 1998 before jumping to Mitsubishi in 2003 to lead development of the Lancer WRC—an era when rallying still had a raw, developmental fierceness. As a freelance engineer, he contributed to major projects for Peugeot, including the brand’s 2009 Le Mans victory, one of the last great petrol-era triumphs before hybridization took over the grid.

Then came a pivotal shift: in 2012, BMW tapped him as head of vehicle development for its motorsport division. There, he oversaw aerodynamics, design, and quality engineering—a trifecta of responsibilities that cemented his reputation as one of the most technically versatile minds in the paddock.

In 2016, Jansonnie returned to Peugeot, eventually becoming Technical Director. Dakar challengers, WRX platforms, EV prototypes—if it wore a lion badge and raced, he likely touched it. Since 2020, he’s served as team principal of the Peugeot TotalEnergies endurance program, helping steer Stellantis back into the top tier of global sports car racing.

Now he’ll oversee the entire Stellantis motorsport portfolio in Europe, reporting directly to Emanuele Cappellano, Head of Enlarged Europe and Stellantis Pro One.

A Leader Stepping Aside After Four Decades

The man Jansonnie replaces, Jean-Marc Finot, is no mere placeholder. His fingerprints are all over Stellantis performance culture—from engineering the iconic 205 GTI in the 1980s to greenlighting modern high-performance platforms across Peugeot, DS, Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Opel, Lancia, and Maserati.

During Finot’s tenure:

  • DS won two Formula E manufacturer and driver titles
  • Peugeot re-entered endurance racing, building the radical 9X8
  • Citroën, Opel, Lancia, and Maserati motorsport programs were revived
  • Customer racing expanded across the group

Finot retires January 31, 2026, marking the end of a career that spans nearly 40 years and some of the most beloved performance vehicles to ever wear French badges.

What Stellantis Says

Cappellano called Jansonnie’s appointment “critical in supporting each brand involved in motorsport,” praising his depth of knowledge while thanking Finot for building a “strong Stellantis Motorsport team, achieving many victories, two world titles, and enabling the development of iconic high-performance vehicles.”

Jansonnie himself struck a forward-looking tone, emphasizing both heritage and innovation:
“Motorsport has always been a cornerstone of the automotive industry… As we enter a new era of global championships, my mission is clear: to keep our brands at the forefront of innovation and performance… Backed by passionate and talented teams, I am ready to take on this challenge.”

What It Means for the Future

Stellantis has quietly become one of the most motorsport-diverse conglomerates in the world. Under one roof sit Peugeot’s Hypercar, DS’s Formula E legacy, Citroën’s rally pedigree, Abarth’s grassroots scene, and Maserati’s newfound racing ambitions.

Jansonnie inherits a motorsport empire at a crossroads—balancing electric championships, endurance hybrids, and customer racing while each brand searches for its post-2030 identity.

If Stellantis wants its racing efforts to turn into showroom excitement—real halo cars that matter to enthusiasts—Jansonnie is a logical, focused choice. Technical, unflashy, respected by engineers and drivers alike, he’s more racer than executive.

And that may be exactly what Stellantis needs.

Source: Stellantis