Mobility is changing as vehicles have become an integral part of the customer's digital life, with software-defined features constantly updated over-the-air (OTA). In alignment with Stellantis’ vision powered by its diversity, the company that encompasses 14 iconic brands lead the way the world moves, Carlos Tavares, Chief Executive Officer, Stellantis has said.
Addressing the company’s Software Day 2021, Tavares said Stellantis has mapped out its software strategy to deploy next-generation tech platforms, building on existing connected vehicle capabilities to transform how customers interact with their vehicles and generate approximately € 20 billion in incremental annual revenues by 2030.
This transformation will move the conglomerate’s vehicles from today's dedicated electronic architectures to an open software-defined platform that seamlessly integrates with customers' digital lives. In addition, it significantly expands the options customers have to add innovative features and services via regular OTA updates, keeping vehicles fresh, exciting and updated years after they have been built.
'Our electrification and software strategies will support the shift to become a sustainable mobility tech company to lead the pack, leveraging the associated business growth with over-the-air features and services and delivering the best experience to our customers. With the three all-new, AI-powered, technology platforms to arrive in 2024, deployed across the four STLA vehicle platforms, we will leverage the speed and agility associated with the decoupling of hardware and software cycles,' he added.
Stellantis plans to invest more than €30 billion through 2025 to execute its software and electrification transformation, which will also work hand-in-hand with its electrification plans to have over 70% of its vehicle sales in Europe and more than 40% of vehicle sales in the United States to be low-emission vehicles by 2030.
To travel faster in this journey, Stellantis has formed additional strategic partnerships. In addition to the closing of Mobile Drive, planned for December 31, 2021, the new non-binding memorandum of understanding signed with Foxconn aims at designing a family of purpose-built micro-controllers to support Stellantis and third-party customers. The partnership is intended to develop four families of chips that will cover more than 80% of the company's micro-controllers' needs, helping simplify the supply chain. Adoption and installation of products into Stellantis vehicles are targeted by 2024.
Secondly, the company will also continue its dedicated projects with Waymo. As Chrysler Pacifica Hybrids equipped with the Waymo Driver provide thousands of fully autonomous rides in Phoenix, Arizona (USA), Stellantis and Waymo have expanded their partnership to local delivery services. Building on its leadership in light commercial vehicles and investment in electrification, the partners collaborate on workstreams focused on commercial development. Engineering teams will get their hands on Stellantis prototypes in 2022.
Yves Bonnefont, Chief Software Officer, said, “We want to redefine the notion itself of designing, engineering and operating cars. Our strategy is to disconnect the hardware and software cycles to create a product that can evolve naturally and regularly.
Mamatha Chamarthi, SVP, Software Business and Product Management P&L, said the company is confident of achieving over €4 billion in additional revenue by 2026 and more than € 20 billion by 2030. “This assessment is based on a realistic trajectory, and it comes with margins similar to tech companies,” she said. To accomplish these goals, the company will focus on five key pillars: Services and subscriptions; Features on-demand; Data as a service and fleet services; Vehicle pricing and resale value; Conquests, service retention and cross-selling.
Today, Stellantis has 12 million monetisable (is defined as the vehicle's first five years of life) connected cars globally. By 2026, this is expected to grow to 26 million vehicles, and by 2030 it will reach 34 million vehicles, Chamarthi added.
Leveraging its data collection capabilities, in 2022, the company will launch a usage-based insurance programme offered through the captive finance arms in Europe and North America, with the intent to expand globally.
The heart of the transformation to customer-centric services is the new electrical/electronic (E/E) and software architecture, STLA Brain, said Joachim Langenwalter, SVP, Engineering Artificial Intelligence, Software & Hardware. STLA Brain, a centralised architecture with a large central brain ECU, surrounded by zone and edge ECUs and aggregating sensors, driving all functions in the vehicle. It is entirely OTA capable, with 30 modules addressed versus ten today, making it highly flexible. It is a service-oriented architecture fully integrated with the cloud that connects electronic control units within the vehicle with the vehicle's central high-performing computer (HPC) via a high-speed data bus. It breaks today's bond between hardware and software generations, enabling software developers to quickly create and update features and services without waiting for a new hardware launch. These OTA updates dramatically reduce costs for both the customers and Stellantis, simplify maintenance for the user and sustain vehicle residual values. The company will launch the three new platforms in 2024 at scale across the four vehicle platforms over the following two years, Langenwalter added.
Vishnu Sundaram, SVP, Cockpit and Connected Services, said, of the 12 million connected cars on the road, the company has delivered six million OTA updates this year. “This is just the beginning and the capability will grow to 34 million connected vehicles by 2030,” he said.
STLA SmartCockpit, built on top of STLA Brain, will seamlessly integrate with the digital lives of vehicle occupants to create a customisable third living space, as according to studies, customers spend an average of four years of their lives in their vehicles, and this is only increasing. STLA SmartCockpit, powered by the Mobile Drive joint venture between Stellantis and Foxconn, delivers AI-based applications, such as navigation, voice assistance, e-commerce marketplace and payment services. STLA AutoDrive, developed in partnership with BMW, will offer Level 2, Level 2+ and Level 3 autonomous driving capabilities and will be continuously upgraded through OTA updates.
Catalysing Customer Experience
Through software and on-demand features, Stellantis is providing customers with the ability to tailor their vehicles to individual needs and desires through OTA updates, further increasing the unique qualities of the various brands within Stellantis and strengthening the bond between the vehicle and driver.
The company’s connected vehicles provide more than three trillion data points, generating timely, actionable insights. The engineers are using this information to shorten the vehicle continuous improvement loop, improving customer satisfaction while generating €1.1 billion in efficiencies by 2030.
Augmenting Talent Pool
The company is creating a software and data academy to retrain more than 1,000 internal engineers in multiple roles and develop its software community to support this transformation. Besides, it is also hiring top software and AI talent from technology and other industries globally.
By 2024, Stellantis targets having 4,500 efficiency-driven software engineers, creating talent hubs around the globe. Those engineers will ensure the perfect execution of Stellantis' software ambitions and operate within the ecosystem created by Stellantis partnerships.