Stellantis reveals STLA Medium global platform for C- and D-segment BEVs
06 July 2023
Stellantis N.V. unveiled STLA Medium, a global BEV-by-design platform with state-of-the-art features including range of 700 kilometers (435 miles), energy efficiency, embedded power and charging power. STLA Medium is the first of four global BEV platforms to be launched less than two years after EV Day presentation in July 2021.
The STLA Medium platform offers long range combined with designed-in flexibility to host a variety of vehicles and propulsion configurations in the heart of the market, the C- and D-segments, which accounted for 35 million sales in 2022—nearly half the 78.5 million vehicles sold globally that year.
Today, Stellantis brands offer 26 vehicle nameplates in those segments on a variety of platforms. Up to two million vehicles per year can be built on the STLA Medium platform in several plants across the world, starting in Europe this year.
The BEV-by-design STLA Medium platform delivers range of more than 700 km (435 miles) with a Performance pack, while a Standard pack is rated at more than 500 km (310 miles) on the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP). Useful energy is up to 98 kilowatt-hours (kWh).
STLA Medium uses a 400-volt electric architecture. Depending on the application, consumption can be less than 14 kWh per 100 km. Owners will be able to take their battery from 20% to 80% charge in 27 minutes, a rate of 2.4 kWh per minute.
Vehicles based on STLA Medium will be sold globally and be available with front-drive propulsion or all-wheel drive with the addition of a second electric drive module at the rear, with BEV power output range from 160 to 285 kW.
Body styles will include passenger cars, crossovers and SUVs. The flexibility of STLA Medium gives Stellantis designers the freedom to create vehicles with:
A wheelbase that can range between 2,700-2,900 millimeters
An overall length range of 4.3-4.9 meters
Ground clearance of more than 220 mm to ensure off-road capability and performance
Wheels up to 750 mm in diameter, a key attribute for the platform design.
Stellantis engineering and manufacturing experts focused on making installation of the modular, high-energy density single-layer battery pack at the assembly plant as efficient as possible, maximizing space inside the vehicle and improving ride and handling with a low center of gravity. Platform components, such as the cabin heating/cooling system, steering, braking assist and propulsion are designed to minimize energy consumption. Those efforts combine with extensive use of lightweight and rigid materials to optimize vehicle range and deliver exemplary ride and handling performance.
STLA Medium will deliver battery packaging cost that also enhances production volumes. The perimeter dimensions of the battery pack are constant among the stored energy options, with common tray and cooling designs.
The STLA platform family (Small/Medium/Large/Frame) is engineered to be future-proof: modular and inherently flexible in wheelbase, width, overhang, ride height and suspension design. The capabilities and performance of STLA based vehicles will adapt and improve over the years with the implementation of the STLA Brain architecture, STLA SmartCockpit and STLA AutoDrive platforms – enabling over-the-air updates to software and enhanced hardware.
The engineered-in flexibility includes propulsion—front-drive, rear-drive, all-wheel drive and multi-energy—covered by a family of three, scalable electric drive modules (EDMs).
The platforms are designed with provisions for future battery chemistries, including nickel- and cobalt-free and solid-state batteries. This enables Stellantis brands to tailor vehicle capabilities for the ideal balance of cost and performance.
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-stellantis-small-medium-sized-electric-vehicles.html
' Tavares has said that EVs generally cost 40% more to produce than internal combustion vehicles. He says the company has to trim costs on EVs to protect affordability for the middle class, as well as to keep the company profitable. '
And there in a nutshell is why truly mass market producers have not, so unreasonably in the view of enthusiasts, already switched to fullyh electric fleets.
It is one thing to produce all electric premium cars, or even in the case of an extraordinarily small country like Norway to mandate a universal switch, it is quite another to provide transport at affordable cost for most folk, especially those in lower income countries.
In addition to the above costs, it also costs a packet to provide charging, even where that it possible, as electric cars require more than one charger per car, one at home, and some extra provision for away from home charging.
A petrol pump can service around 1500 cars per pump.
Petrol stations are expensive, but they are not 1500 times the cost of home chargers, even where it can be done.
Of course, there are real although hidden costs in using petrol, both in pollution and in GHG, but it remains the case that one heck of a lot of costs have to come out of BEV cars to make them a a more or less universal solution.
Interestingly, Toyota reckon they can crack it within the next few years with their solid state batteries etc.
Posted by: Davemart | 06 July 2023 at 01:47 AM
Dave,
Some of your maths aren't convincing. You don't need one charger per car if you own more than one car, or if you share a charger (public chargers, for instance). EVs only need to be charged weekly by most users.
Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the cost of a liquid fuel station was 1,500 times greater than that of a type 2 charger. A home charger is a one-time expense, similar to hooking-up a laundry room. It requires little ongoing maintenance or overhead.
A fuel station requires the purchase of large amounts of land, expensive construction (tanks), daily maintenance, staffing, and environmental remediation.
I don't know the situation where you live, but here in Canada it's increasingly rare to find fuel stations in a city's downtown core. The economics just don't work, compared to other types of land use.
I do agree that there aren't enough EVs at the lower end of the price scale, but there are fewer cheap cars of any kind available. Most brands have stopped offering "sub-compacts" in North America (equivalent to A or B segment in Europe). The market has moved upscale, and not just for bad reasons.
EVs are now competitive in the mainstream market, especially if you account for fuel prices in your monthly budget.
Posted by: Bernard | 07 July 2023 at 07:23 AM
Hi Bernard.
I was not attempting a definitive all cases scenario for charging needed etc, which is somewhat out of the scope of even informed comments on a blog.
Others however have, and typically battery advocates focus on the lower unit costs of one home charger, without much consideration that you need loads more of them.
And I very specifically referred to the lower end of the market, which is going to consist of the vast majority of car sales over the next 30 years, which will not be so much focussed on multiple car households, usually with a driveway or garage where charge points can be easily and conveniently installed anyway,
I reckon many or most of those folk won't want or need to fool around anyway sharing a charger, but will install more than one, and in any case provision has to be made for away from home as well as at home.
Your argument:
' I do agree that there aren't enough EVs at the lower end of the price scale, but there are fewer cheap cars of any kind available. Most brands have stopped offering "sub-compacts" in North America (equivalent to A or B segment in Europe). The market has moved upscale, and not just for bad reasons. '
Makes bare the root of the issue.
The economics of producing Class A cars has been destroyed, by subsidies and mandates for 'eco' cars, when in fact for the total vehicle including production etc a small light vehicle uses way less resources.
The sucking sound that you hear is the comparatively well off lining their pockets at the expence of everyone else.
Driving poorer motorists off the road does reduce carbon emissions, but their is little or nothing 'ecologica'' about fat, heavy, vastly accelerating, tire shredding cars, even is they are electric.
In the grand scheme of things, no doubt electrification even by means of such an unjust and regressive allocation of resources will develop the technology, but will not do so to anything like the extent of getting people out of cars and developing walkable neighborhoods.
The same carbon objectives may be realisable by the present system of driving poorer people off the road whilst subsidising the well off.
But call me old fashioned, I just don't fancy it.
And most new motorists between now and 2050 will be needing economical transport, at one per household in crowded cities, not multiple car families driving faux ecological eco barges .
Posted by: Davemart | 07 July 2023 at 08:38 AM
I'm not sure that poorer motorists are being driven off the road. Entry-level cars are much less competitive now, compared to recent used cars, mostly because cars are more reliable and longer-lasting than they used to be. Given the choice between a bare-bones entry-level car, and a well-equipped of-lease three-year-old car, more people choose the latter. That's because a 3-year-old car has a decade or two of useful life left, unlike in my parents' generation when cars were living on borrowed time after five years.
Of course, we can't ignore the fact that car ownership is less attractive than it was during the great suburban expansion of the previous century. Younger generations are moving back to the city, where car ownership is a choice, not a necessity.
Posted by: Bernard | 07 July 2023 at 12:19 PM
Hi Bernard.
The motoring goups at least in Europe made it very clear that they could not sustain the wafer thin margins on class A cars, as they were being driven by fleet emission standards to cover the cost of electrification etc, which at least at this stage is primarily for the better off.
We did not go in the direction of electrifying small, light city cars with modest range, but heavy, fast cars at the premium end of the market.
Perhaps doing it the other way would not have been practical, but in any case we did not.
' because cars are more reliable and longer-lasting than they used to be.'
Just ain't so.
' Electric cars are being written off for having the slightest damage to battery packs following accidents because there is no way of repairing them, according to a report by Reuters.
It said insurance companies are increasingly being left with little to no choice but to permanently take the cars off the road after minor collisions, which in turn is pushing premiums on electric vehicles (EVs) higher.
The report warns of scratched and mildly damaged battery packs 'piling up in scrapyards in some countries' with experts saying batteries in expensive Tesla Y SUVs have 'zero reparability' because they are a structural part of the car.'
Posted by: Davemart | 07 July 2023 at 02:07 PM
BTW I said at the time that batteries as part of the structure of a car first caame up that it is a spectacularly dumb idea for the buyer because of the impossibility of practical repair.
It was driven of course by the ever more desperate attempts to live up to the hype of ever increasing battery energy density, longer range and reduced cost as the reality of fundamentally increasing all metrics together is way, way tougher than enthusiasts wanted to believe.
So increased range, lighter weight and reduced manufacturing cost was hit - at the cost of making them irreparable.
What a dumb trade off!
Posted by: Davemart | 07 July 2023 at 02:34 PM