Stellantis to launch its first EV in India under Citroen brand next year

Stellantis, which was formed by the merger between Italian-American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and French PSA Group, plans to bring EVs in both the compact sub-4m segment and multi-purpose/sports utility vehicles segment in India.

"We are going to bring not only compact cars, I would say within the Indian market segmentation less than four meters, but we'll also bring EVs with people movers for the next products to be launched. We will bring those EV versions in both the less than 4-metre cars and to MPV-SUV oriented products that will come next", said the company’s global CEO Carlos Tavares during a virtual interaction with media.

Specifically in India, Citroen will be leading the way in EV introduction. Stellantis will launch its first electric vehicle in India under the Citroen brand next year and is expecting up to 30 percent of total sales to come from EVs by 2030. The first car is expected to be the EV version of the soon-to-be-launched Citroen C3 crossover, a sub-4m model. The conventional C3 will launch in India next month followed by the EV variant next year.

With batteries accounting for 40 percent of the total production cost of EVs, Stellantis is looking for local sourcing to reduce the overall cost of such vehicles for requirements in India as well as for the rest of the world.“So far for the EV versions, we have not found proper sourcing in terms of batteries, but we are looking forward to discussing with Indian partners on that,” Tavares said.Under its 2030 vision, Stellantis has said that it expects sales in Europe to be 100 percent EV, while in the US it will be 50 percent.