Tag: Stellantis

  • Why Major Automakers Are Splitting Investments Between EVs and Hybrids in 2026

    Why Major Automakers Are Splitting Investments Between EVs and Hybrids in 2026

    Automakers are now taking a more balanced approach to powertrain investments, splitting billions between fully electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids. Rather than retreating from electrification, companies like Toyota, Ford, GM, Honda, and Stellantis are using hybrids to manage risk and support long-term EV goals.

    Why EV Demand Has Cooled

    Between 2021 and 2024, automakers set ambitious timelines for an all-electric future. But by 2025, EV demand slowed as several markets cut incentives and consumer interest plateaued. Toyota reduced its 2026 global EV production target to 1 million units and delayed its US EV production start. Yet Toyota remained the top-selling automaker in the US in 2025, largely thanks to strong hybrid sales. This shift signals that many buyers still prefer hybrids as a practical, affordable choice.

    Why Hybrids Are Making a Comeback

    Hybrids appeal to buyers who want better fuel economy without worrying about charging infrastructure or the higher upfront cost of many EVs. Ford is adding hybrid options across nearly its entire lineup. Honda is developing a new hybrid platform from the ground up. Stellantis, meanwhile, is moving away from plug-in hybrids in North America toward mild hybrids and range-extended models.

    Why Automakers Need Both Powertrains

    Hybrid production uses existing engine and transmission lines, existing supplier deals, and much smaller battery packs than full EVs. This reduces exposure to volatile lithium and nickel prices and helps factories stay busy while EV demand catches up. Ford expects its EV division, Model e, to turn a profit by 2029, with hybrid profits helping bridge the gap. GM took a $6 billion writedown on its EV business and is rethinking an all-electric Cadillac lineup. Stellantis is building the STLA One platform, designed to handle EV, hybrid, and gas models on the same production lines. This approach doesn’t sideline EVs—it uses hybrid profits to buy time for the industry to get electric mobility right.

    Regional Strategies Shape Powertrain Choices

    No single global strategy works for every market. Easing US emissions rules have reduced the compliance value of plug-in hybrids in some segments, leading Stellantis to retire them in North America. Europe, on the other hand, continues to push for tighter emissions standards and stronger EV incentives. North America’s uneven charging infrastructure keeps hybrids ahead in mainstream segments, while regions with robust charging networks and policy support favor EVs. Executives now describe this as running several regional strategies in parallel, rather than one transition plan with a fixed end date.

    What It Means for Buyers and Investors

    Buyers can expect more hybrid choices in mainstream segments through 2026, alongside EVs positioned carefully where charging infrastructure is mature. For investors, key metrics to watch are hybrid margins, capital committed to shared platforms like STLA One, and how fast EV divisions close their profitability gap.

    Final Thoughts

    Instead of betting solely on EVs or hybrids, automakers are competing on operational flexibility—running both powertrains on shared factories and platforms without overcommitting to either. That flexibility, more than any single technology, is shaping up as the industry’s real competitive advantage for the rest of the decade.

  • Stellantis AI Chief Kaynaz Behdin on Industrializing Enterprise AI for Measurable Business Impact

    Stellantis AI Chief Kaynaz Behdin on Industrializing Enterprise AI for Measurable Business Impact

    Kaynaz Behdin, Senior Vice President of Digital, Data & AI at Stellantis, is redefining how the automotive giant approaches artificial intelligence. In a recent interview, Behdin emphasized that her focus is not on experimentation but on building AI as a disciplined enterprise capability that drives customer satisfaction, value creation, operational performance, and speed.

    Stellantis, the multinational automaker behind brands like Jeep, Peugeot, Fiat, and Vauxhall, operates a distributed global environment. Behdin’s strategy relies on a three-layer operating model: translating leadership priorities into a single execution framework, embedding AI and Data Business Hubs directly into functions, and providing global platforms and shared talent pools to industrialize delivery.

    AI is already applied across Stellantis’ full value chain, including sales conversion and retention, warranty and quality cost reduction, logistics efficiency, manufacturing uptime, and faster engineering cycles. Key criteria for prioritizing use cases include business ownership, scalability across plants and regions, and strict safety and compliance frameworks.

    Behdin identified the main barriers to AI adoption as organizational and human, not technological. To address this, Stellantis runs an AI Academy with persona-based training—from executive coaching to hands-on workshops—to embed AI literacy into daily work. She also highlighted the importance of governance as an accelerator, with risk assessment built across the data-to-AI lifecycle and observability tools tracking what agents and models do.

    Looking ahead, Behdin sees generative AI transforming in-vehicle experiences, engineering cycles, operations, and commercial performance. Stellantis has deployed an Agent Gateway—a standardized infrastructure layer for AI agents to interact with enterprise platforms—and is rolling out a system called Metabot inside Microsoft Teams to bring the agent ecosystem to employees’ daily workspace.

    Behdin’s three priorities for 2026 are embedding AI into the business, industrializing agentic AI at scale with strong abstraction layers to avoid vendor lock-in, and ensuring value measurement and compliance by design. She concluded: “It’s the year we move from ‘great use cases’ to true AI-first, enterprise-level transformation, with our customers and our people at the centre of everything we do.”