Tag Archives: Stellantis

News

Haute Couture on Wheels: DS N°8 Struts Through Paris Fashion Week

Paris, late September. The streets are clogged with blacked-out SUVs, photographers are swarming outside venues, and someone in a hat that costs more than your car is shouting into a phone. But this year, amid the chaos of Paris Fashion Week, there’s a new star stealing the limelight. Forget the catwalk. The DS N°8 has arrived – and it’s wearing the Paris Fashion Week logo like a designer label stitched across its electric haunches.

DS Automobiles, a brand that’s never been shy about blending French flair with tech-laden wizardry, has been a partner of Paris Fashion Week since 2019. Now it’s doubling down, rolling out a 20-strong fleet of its flagship DS N°8 to ferry fashion’s finest from show to show. Think of it less as a chauffeur car, more as a rolling VIP lounge – with watchstrap-stitched leather seats instead of velvet ropes.

Electric Catwalk

Naturally, these aren’t your average taxis. Every DS N°8 in this fleet is fully electric, with the option of two- or four-wheel drive. Whisper-quiet progress through the cobbled streets of the Marais? Check. Enough torque to outrun a paparazzo scooter? Absolutely. It’s the kind of transport where Anna Wintour can glide between venues in serene silence while the rest of Paris clatters along in a traffic jam.

Details, Darling, Details

Inside, DS has leaned heavily into its obsession with craftsmanship. Pearl stitching on the seats, Clous de Paris guilloché metal trim on the dashboard, and upholstery finished like a luxury watch strap. It’s all very “atelier” – because why stop at tailoring your suit when your car can match it stitch for stitch? This is automotive design that borrows more from haute couture than it does from engineering textbooks.

Theatrics With a Steering Wheel

DS CEO Xavier Peugeot calls the partnership a celebration of “creativity, design and avant-garde.” And you can see why. The DS N°8 isn’t trying to be a German limo with better PR. It’s doing something more French: treating driving as theatre. At Paris Fashion Week, the car becomes part of the spectacle – a mobile runway, a statement of taste, an accessory.

So, what’s the verdict? Is the DS N°8 a fashion accessory on wheels, or a proper car you’d actually want to drive? Well, both. On the one hand, it’s dripping with finery, the sort of machine that feels more at home parked outside a Louis Vuitton show than a supermarket. But on the other, it’s a serious EV, packed with tech, comfortable enough to cross Europe, and distinctive enough to stand out in a sea of identikit SUVs.

In short: if Paris Fashion Week is all about who’s wearing what, then DS just made sure the answer to “who’s driving what” is equally stylish.

Source: Stellantis

News

Stellantis Gives Old EV Batteries a New Mission: Powering Mobility for All

Stellantis is proving that an electric vehicle battery’s life doesn’t end when the car does. Through its circular economy arm, SUSTAINera, the automaker is repurposing high-voltage packs for “second-life” duty—and one of the most compelling examples yet isn’t powering a car, but helping people move in an entirely different way.

Meet AVATHOR ONE, an electric mobility device designed for wheelchair users and people with reduced mobility. Instead of relying on freshly built batteries, AVATHOR ONE runs on modules reclaimed from Stellantis EVs. The packs are collected in Turin, tested, and re-engineered by INTENT S.r.l., a local system integrator. The result: compact 1.4- or 2.8-kWh units that drive the device’s electric heart, backed by a modern battery management system.

Think of it as recycling meets inclusivity. “A second life for batteries, a new freedom of mobility for people,” is more than a slogan here—it’s a practical example of how automakers can merge sustainability and social responsibility without compromising technology.

The project is a local ecosystem done right. Stellantis supplies the used EV batteries. INTENT breaks down, repacks, and reintegrates them. Avathor, a Turin-based startup, builds the device itself, while legendary design house Italdesign shapes the product from its 2019 concept (the WheeM-i) into the market-ready AVATHOR ONE. The collaboration officially launched in April and has already been showcased globally—first at Expo 2025 Osaka, and next at the upcoming Salone Auto Torino.

And AVATHOR ONE isn’t just a feel-good story. It’s part of a much bigger Stellantis strategy to wring maximum value out of its EV batteries. Beyond mobility aids, SUSTAINera has partnered with utilities and battery integrators on large-scale energy storage, including ENEL X’s PIONEER project at Rome Fiumicino Airport. That installation—the largest of its kind in Italy—stores renewable energy, cuts CO₂ emissions by an estimated 16,000 tons over a decade, and shows that repurposed car batteries can scale well beyond niche applications.

The goal is nothing less than a 360-degree approach to EV battery life: Reuse, Repurpose, Remanufacture, and Recycle. In other words, keep these high-voltage packs working as long as possible before they hit the shredder.

For Stellantis, that strategy is both a business model and a statement. The company has seen “second-life” battery demand surge over the last three years, and it’s investing heavily to keep the momentum. If AVATHOR ONE is any indication, the payoff won’t just be measured in carbon savings—but in freedom of movement for people who need it most.

Source: Stellantis

Design

Stellantis Design Studio Brings Automotive Boldness to the High Seas with Windelo Catamarans

Stellantis Design Studio has built its reputation sculpting sheet metal into icons for the road. Now, it’s turning its attention to the open sea. In collaboration with French builder Windelo Catamarans and the naval architects at Barreau-Neuman, the design house has reimagined Windelo’s latest flagships—the Windelo 62 and Windelo 58. The result? Two vessels that merge the muscular stance of a performance car with the sophistication of sustainable, long-range cruising.

At first glance, the design language is familiar: bold shoulders, sleek surfacing, and a dynamic silhouette that looks like it could cut through air just as well as it does water. The hulls of the new Windelo 62 and 58 aren’t simply functional—they’re styled with the same proportion-driven eye Stellantis brings to a performance coupe. That means a vessel that’s not just seaworthy, but striking, with living spaces folded seamlessly into its streamlined form.

The 360 Horizon Cabin: Redefining the View

The centerpiece of this collaboration is the 360 Horizon Cabin concept, a floating-roof design that all but erases boundaries between crew, vessel, and horizon. A hidden glass frame creates uninterrupted views in every direction, while the open cockpit and bridge layout pull passengers into the seascape. Below deck, cabins are infused with the same sense of light and openness, with wider sightlines and better integration between levels.

Out back, a “floating wing” rear deck widens the stance, boosts access to the upper cabin, and floods aft cabins with light. On the bridge, the wide, floating instrument panel isn’t just functional—it’s a sculptural centerpiece, angled toward the helm for ergonomics while cleverly concealing the window frame from outside view. It feels every bit as driver-focused as the cockpit of a modern grand tourer.

Performance Meets Sustainability

Windelo has built its reputation on balancing performance with eco-conscious construction, and this new design doubles down. From lightweight composites to energy-efficient systems, sustainability isn’t a buzzword here—it’s baked into the DNA. Stellantis’s design language amplifies this mission, pairing everyday liveability with performance-driven intent.

“Translating automotive proportion into the marine environment was an inspiring challenge,” said Hugo Nightingale, creative director at Stellantis Design Studio. “The Windelo 62 and 58 capture the perfect synergy between our expertise in pushing design boundaries and Windelo’s commitment to performance and sustainability.”

Fast-Tracked by AI and Holographics

If the design feels cutting-edge, that’s because the process behind it was just as futuristic. Stellantis designers leaned on AI to churn through iterations, then used immersive holographic review tools to refine surfaces and spaces in real time. This accelerated workflow meant that not only the Windelo 62 and 58 took shape quickly, but two more siblings—the Windelo 63 and 59—were designed simultaneously to ensure a cohesive design language across the fleet.

“Working with Stellantis Design Studio has opened new perspectives and challenged the status quo,” said Christophe Barreau of Barreau-Neuman. “Their approach brought a fresh perspective to naval architecture.”

What happens when a global automotive design powerhouse steps off the tarmac and onto the deck? You get a catamaran that looks as bold slicing through the waves as any Stellantis concept car does pulling up to Pebble Beach. The Windelo 62 and 58 aren’t just sailboats—they’re a manifesto on how design can elevate every corner of mobility, whether it rolls on asphalt or rides the wind.

Source: Stellantis