By Michael Elkins
Stellantis (NYSE:STLA) confirmed Thursday that the automaker is finalizing testing of eFuels on 28 engine families to help accelerate the carbon emissions reduction potential of their internal combustion engines (ICE) in Europe, while remaining committed to selling only BEV passenger cars in the region by the end of the decade.
eFuel is a drop-in replacement synthetic fuel made from captured atmospheric CO2 and renewable energy. The broad adoption of eFuels would offer customers with existing ICE vehicles an easy and affordable option to decarbonize their vehicles without needing to replace their vehicle, upgrade the engine fuel system or await a new infrastructure network.
“We are doubling down on our fight against global warming by testing carbon-neutral fuel as a complementary solution to our holistic decarbonization approach. While we remain steadfast in executing our aggressive electrification strategy, we must also find smart alternatives to address the CO2 emissions for the 1.3 billion existing ICE cars,” said Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares. “By working to make sure our Stellantis engines are eFuels friendly, we are aiming at giving our customers another tool in the fight against global warming and one that can have an almost immediate impact. It is also another action we are taking that is well aligned with our commitment to be carbon neutral by 2038.”
Stellantis is testing and validating 28 engine families built from 2014 to 2029 for both gasoline and diesel engines. The use of eFuel in the up to 28 million vehicles in the Stellantis fleet has the potential to reduce up to 400 million tons of CO2 emissions in Europe from 2025 through 2050.
The company’s long-term strategic plan Dare Forward 2030 is led by deep emission cuts to slash CO2 in half by 2030, benchmarking 2021 metrics, and achieving carbon net zero by 2038 with single-digit percentage compensation of the remaining emissions. Core targets for Dare Forward 2030 also include 100% of passenger car sales in Europe and 50% of passenger car and light-duty truck sales in the United States to be BEVs by the end of the decade.
Shares of STLA are down 4.97% in morning trading on Thursday.