Stellantis Plans To Launch A Fleet Of Electric Vehicles Using The Advanced Factorial Batteries

Stellantis recently announced that they plan to release a demonstration fleet of electric vehicles based on solid-state batteries from US startup Factorial. While the timeline for this release is in 2026 or two years from now, this solid-state battery technology should result in the related Stellantis cars being far less likely to catch fire and potentially far faster to charge with an even greater range.

Solid-state batteries are favored over more traditional electric car battery formulations, but they have been problematic to bring to market in the numbers the auto industry generates. In addition, Stellantis, in particular, has been suffering recently from poor sales, and as a result, some doubt they’ll be able to execute this initiative in a timely manner.

However, if Stellantis can execute this move timely, it could lead to their electric cars being preferred over competitive vehicles, which, as yet, are still tied to the less safe existing electric car battery technology.

Stellantis

Stellantis has a large number of performance, off-road, and luxury brands, including Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati. While the initial rollout of these uniquely high-powered, efficient, and safe batteries will largely be focused on Dodge Chargers, it is expected to move to the other brands once volumes and the benefits of these newly reformulated batteries are better understood.

Stellantis isn’t alone in this move either. Mercedes and Hyundai also have significant investments in Factorial, and while they haven’t yet announced their moves to this technology, we believe that they are already planning to do so. So, Stellantis doesn’t have a huge amount of time to execute here, assuming.

While Stellantis is the 5th largest automaker in the world by volume, it is also one of the most troubled. They have had some success, looking to gain $5B in synergies between their different automotive brands; they over executed and got something like $8B in related benefits. And 2023, for the company, was a very profitable year. However, 2024 has been problematic, with sales falling around 14% and profits dropping to nearly half of what they had been.  

A lot of this problem comes from very high unsold inventories of high-priced Jeep and Dodge Ram products. According to Cox Automotive, they have one of the highest unsold inventories on the planet, which isn’t good for Stellantis’ profitability or reputation. In addition, they are looking at a potentially coming broad strike from the UAW, and their suppliers are upset with the company, and it isn’t going well.   

But if Stellantis can execute its plan to have flexible platforms configured as gas or electric vehicles and bring these solid-state batteries to market promptly, it could turn around its fortunes and take the company back to success. That is a big if for a firm that has had execution problems of late, but it isn’t an impossible task. If the unions and suppliers can be brought on board to help with this transition, then the company is more likely to survive and exist in this process in better shape than it is now.

Wrapping Up:

Stellantis (and others) are aggressively moving to new solid-state car battery formulations and designs. The result will be electric cars that are safer, better, faster, and potentially less expensive than we currently have on the market, as well as some cars that are closer to electric muscle cars than we have today.

Stellantis has several storied brands, and the firm’s failure would be hard felt by the industry. So, here is hoping they can pull this pivot off and restore the company and its sub-brands to their former glory.

Rob Enderle is a technology analyst at Torque News who covers automotive technology and battery development. You can learn more about Rob on Wikipedia and follow his articles on Forbes, X, and LinkedIn.