Stellantis, a multinational automotive manufacturing corporation, has just reported that they plan to generate around 4 billion euros in additional annual revenue by 2026 and around 20 billion euros by 2030 from software-enabled products and subscriptions.
Software is playing a key role in vehicles, managing electric motors and batteries, set-up and support for a wide range of functions such as autonomous driving, entertainment and navigation.
Automakers’ software capabilities have also been evaluated. This includes improving vehicle battery performance and strategies for gathering, interpreting and monetising data coming from cars. Presenting its long-term software strategy, Stellantis said it expected to have 34 million connected vehicles on the streets by 2030 from 12 million now.
U.S. electric car maker Tesla is seen to be leading in software capability, while legacy automakers are struggling to catch up. Among them, investors and analysts see Stellantis as lagging the likes of Volkswagen and General Motors in making investments in advanced technology.
Earlier this year Ford hired the former head of Apple’s car project, Doug Field, to lead its advanced technology and embedded systems efforts, while France’s Renault is teaming up with Google to help design its infotainment systems.
Stellantis said it aims to deploy three new technological platforms powered by artificial intelligence, to be named STLA Brain, STLA SmartCockpit, and STLA AutoDrive. Chief Software Officer Yves Bonnefont said these would “certainly” match competitors’ most advanced platforms. He noted:
“This is something that will put Stellantis among the leaders, if not the leader, in software and electronics.”
Investments for software development are included in Stellantis’ plan, announced earlier this year, to invest more than 30 billion euros through 2025 to execute its strategy. Bonnefont also commented that the group would move its vehicles from current dedicated electronic architectures to an open software platform, leveraging partnerships.
Stellantis has strategic partnerships with companies including BMW, IPhone maker Foxconn and Alphabet Inc’s Waymo.
Bonnefont said Stellantis are planning to finalise a joint venture with Foxconn to supply in-car and connected-car technologies across the auto industry. In relation to this, the group announced a preliminary agreement to create a second partnership with Foxconn to design a family of purpose-built semiconductors to support the carmaker and other customers.
