Stellantis plans giant investment in South America

The South American branch of automaker Stellantis plans a series of significant investments starting in 2025, aiming to outperform its competitors, according to the company’s regional general manager.

“For the next cycle, my investment, if approved, will be much larger than the sum of my competitors,” Antonio Filosa told reporters at a carbon emissions reduction event.

He did not provide details about the size of the investment.

Stellantis, the world’s third-largest automotive Group by sales, plans to launch 43 vehicles for eight brands in South America in 2021-2025, with planned investments totaling more than US$3.14 billion.

Currently, the Group is the leader in vehicle sales in South America, with a market share of around 24%.

To reduce emissions, the company plans to locally produce flex-fuel hybrid vehicles – which run on batteries but also use engines that burn a mixture of gasoline and ethanol – and ethanol hybrid vehicles.

“South America will become a cradle of this future,” Filosa affirmed, referring to the supply of raw materials for batteries, such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt.

However, Brazil will not see relevant growth in electric and hybrid vehicle sales until after 2026 and 2027, helped in part by cheaper local production.

Brazil offers an advantage in the auto industry’s so-called decarbonization mission through sugarcane ethanol as fuel in engines, the carbon gas of which can be recaptured by growing crops.

In other major markets, the predominant option is all-electric.

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