Tag Archives: vehicles

News

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

CONCEPT CARS

Citroën ELO Concept First Look: The Tiny House That Wants to Reinvent the Minivan

Citroën has never been shy about zigging where others zag, and with the unveiling of its new ELO concept, the French brand is doubling down on its century-old habit of rethinking what a car should be. Following the wonderfully oddball OLI from 2022, ELO represents Citroën’s next big leap—a rolling laboratory of ideas built to anticipate how we’ll move, work, and live in the near future.

And if Citroën has anything to say about it, the future is compact, cheerful, electric, and unexpectedly spacious.

A Minivan for the New Electric Age

The ELO measures just 4.10 meters long—city-car territory—but inside, it opens up like a modernist studio apartment on wheels. Electric-only packaging gives designers the freedom to push wheels outward, flatten floors, and stretch volume in ways combustion cars simply couldn’t. The result is a “little one that thinks big”: a machine that wants to be your commuter pod, weekend camper, mobile office, and six-seat family shuttle—all at once.

Citroën calls it a “tiny house on wheels,” and for once, the marketing doesn’t feel exaggerated.

REST. PLAY. WORK. Repeat.

Inside the ELO, the usual car/interior distinction dissolves. It’s less cockpit, more living room. Seats slide, fold, rotate, and vanish in ways that make current minivans look downright rigid.

  • Everyday setup: four seats, with the driver sitting centrally—McLaren F1 style—for maximum forward visibility under a panoramic 180-degree windshield.
  • Conversation mode: the driver’s seat swivels around to face the rear passengers, turning the cabin into a rolling lounge.
  • People-mover mode: two additional seats unfold from hidden compartments, expanding capacity to six.
  • Adventure mode: the entire interior converts into a sleeping space for two—think micro camper van without the bulk.
  • Entertainment mode: the cabin transforms into a home-cinema setup, reinforced with onboard power solutions.

It’s modularity pushed to the point of playfulness, and in a market where every interior is starting to feel like a tablet with seats, that’s refreshingly human.

The Cheerful Personality Missing in EVs Today

Where many electric concepts lean into sterile minimalism, the ELO embraces “joie de vivre.” Bright colors, expressive surfaces, and a kind of toy-like friendliness define the exterior. Citroën wants this thing to feel accessible and optimistic—a counterpoint to the cold futurism dominating the EV landscape.

This isn’t a car that takes itself too seriously. And that’s a good thing.

Co-Created with the Outdoors Experts

To build ELO, Citroën tapped partners who understand real-world lifestyles:

  • Decathlon contributed expertise from its outdoor gear team, helping inspire functional, durable, sustainable interior materials and clever onboard storage.
  • Goodyear developed new “smart” outdoor-ready tires capable of adapting to the car’s varied use cases—urban commuting one moment, dirt-track detours the next.

The result is a concept that feels grounded rather than purely theoretical. You can imagine using this thing tomorrow, not in some distant utopian cityscape.

A Signal of Where Citroën Wants to Go

Xavier Chardon, Citroën’s brand chief, frames ELO as a thesis statement: bold, accessible, responsible, and designed around well-being rather than horsepower arms races. The company is entering Formula E, refreshing its lineup at high speed, and clearly wants to reassert itself as Europe’s friendly disruptor.

Design boss Pierre Leclercq puts it bluntly: design must combine style and function—and ELO is the purest expression of that philosophy. Citroën’s designers had “fun,” and it shows.

So What Exactly Is ELO?

A hint at the next Berlingo? A preview of a future city camper? Or simply a manifesto for how Citroën believes electric packaging should be used?

Maybe ELO is all of these. But most importantly, it’s a reminder of something the industry sometimes forgets: cars can be clever. They can be playful. They can make life easier instead of more complicated.

Whether ELO becomes a production model or stays a showpiece, Citroën’s message is clear: the future of mobility isn’t just about range and charging speeds. It’s about giving people back their time, space, and freedom.

And if that future looks anything like ELO, it might actually be fun.

Source: Stellantis

News

Porsche vs. Time: Inside the Relentless Engineering Behind Its Next-Gen EV Batteries

Battery aging may be as inevitable as gravity, but at Porsche, inevitability is just another engineering challenge to outsmart. Lithium-ion cells naturally shed one to five percent of their capacity in the first year—a phenomenon engineers politely call the “initial drop.” Porsche’s solution? Build batteries that start life with extra headroom, so the real-world state of health (SoH) fades far more slowly than physics would prefer.

This kind of thinking defines the brand’s most recent work behind the scenes—an obsessive, methodical quest to turn fast charging, durability, and safety into something approaching sorcery. And nowhere is that clearer than in the new Taycan.

Heat, Stress, and the Restaurant Metaphor That Explains Everything

At the cell level, an EV battery is a bustling ecosystem of ions, particles, and microscopic mechanical stress. Lithium shuttles back and forth across an internal membrane during charging and discharging, expanding and contracting like marathoner lungs. Fill the tank—charge the battery—and resistance rises. Drain it, and resistance drops.

“Batteries actually want to be discharged. They have to be forced to charge,” says Carlos Alberto Cordova Tineo, one of Porsche’s leads in battery cell development and fast charging. To explain the complexity, he uses the most unexpected analogy: a restaurant.

Temperature? That’s the door—the warmer it is, the wider it opens, and the faster ions flow in. Battery age? That’s reduced seating capacity; fewer chairs mean longer queues. State of charge? Already-occupied tables. And when the line gets too long, people give up. For lithium-ion cells, that “giving up” is lithium plating: lithium that gets deposited as inactive metal instead of nestling safely into the anode. It’s a primary cause of capacity loss.

Porsche’s answer is “making the door as wide as possible”—intelligent thermal management, tightly controlled charging currents, and cell chemistry designed for abuse.

Fast Charging, But Make It Last for 300,000 Kilometers

Porsche knows its customers use fast charging only around 15 percent of the time. But in development, the company pushes far past reasonable: stress-testing at 50 percent fast-charge cycles, blasting batteries with temperature swings from 60 to 100°C, and simulating mileage stretching to 300,000 km.

The results show up in the latest Taycan’s battery pack. New cells reduce internal resistance, and cooling has received a major overhaul. Passive cooling inside each cell module, a redesigned cooling plate with capacity bumped from 6 to 10 kW, and beefier busbars now allow higher currents without melting anything important.

The payoff? Charging from 10 to 80 percent now takes 18 minutes, down from 21.5 in the previous generation—even with a larger battery. Peak charging power climbs from 270 to 320 kW, and the system can now start fast-charging at a chilly 15°C, instead of 25°C. Translation: more real-world fast-charging scenarios, fewer coffee-break-length stops.

And while capacity grows from 93.4 to 105 kWh, weight drops by 9 kilograms. That’s very Porsche: larger, faster, and lighter.

Bigger Discharge Current = Bigger Grin

The Taycan’s performance bump isn’t just about power—it’s about current. Porsche has increased the discharge limit from 860 to 1,100 amps. That means more instantaneous shove off the line and stronger acceleration deeper into the throttle. All of this while keeping the battery cooler, happier, and healthier over the long term.

When Safety Is Non-Negotiable

EV batteries operate under immense stress, and Porsche tests them like they assume the worst will happen every day. One test submerges the battery more than a meter deep in water; no droplets may infiltrate the sealed housing. Another coats the pack in corrosive saltwater, testing resistance to chemical assault.

Crash safety is equally extreme. High-voltage components are tucked into low-risk zones. Sensors detect abnormal stresses almost instantly, isolating motors and draining residual energy to prevent electric shock. Components such as battery modules are tested far beyond what any real-world crash could generate.

In Porsche’s Weissach testing facility, a Macan e-SUV was recently slammed sideways into a rigid pole. After the horrific crunch? The high-voltage battery showed virtually no deformation. That’s the standard.

The Porsche Promise: Fast, Fearless, and Forever

Walk through Porsche’s battery-development halls and one theme emerges: every test is deliberately harsher than anything a customer will experience. No compromises on charging speed. No compromises on safety. No compromises on longevity or reliability.

It’s a philosophy that seems almost contradictory—push the battery harder so it lasts longer—but it’s quintessential Porsche logic. Make it stronger than necessary so the owner never has to think about it.

In an era where EVs are defined by their batteries, Porsche isn’t just future-proofing its cars—it’s future-proofing its reputation. And judging by the latest Taycan’s leap in charging speed, thermal management, power delivery, and safety, the brand’s approach to battery engineering is beginning to look like its next big performance advantage.

Source: Porsche