Stellantis, that American-French-Italian automaker headquartered in the Netherlands is a bit behind the curve on electrifying its sprawling vehicle portfolio, but the company is slowly revealing its EV plans. On Friday, the multinational company announced its upcoming STLA Large architecture, a highly flexible, EV-native platform that’s poised to underpin a wide range of D- and E-segment vehicles in global markets.
With this newly introduced foundation, Stellantis promises a range of segment-leading capabilities, from vehicle dynamics and charging efficiency to energy storage and even Trail Rated off-road capability, which indicates future Jeeps will ride atop the STLA Large architecture.
Launching between 2024 and 2026, some eight different vehicles are expected to be underpinned by this platform. STLA Large is slated to debut in North America, where it will serve as the foundation for products from Dodge and Jeep. After that, vehicles from the Alfa Romeo, Chrysler and Maserati marques will debut on this architecture.
“Creating a family of vehicles from a well-engineered set of components that is flexible enough to cover multiple vehicle types and propulsions, overperforming any of our current products, will address each of our iconic brands’ customers,” said Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares in a media release. “The flexibility and agility of this platform is its hallmark and will be a driving force for our success in the shift to electrification in North America,” he added.
According to the automaker, STLA Large is engineered to deliver both top-level quality and high customer satisfaction. Efficient manufacturing is another important strength of this platform, as it’s also designed to support a broad range of products, from cars and crossovers to bulky SUVs. This foundation allows for different wheelbases and vehicle lengths, unique suspension configurations and body overhangs, varied passenger floors and much more.
STLA Large is a native-EV platform, one that’s designed for both 400- and 800-volt battery architectures. It will initially support battery packs sized between 85 and 118 kilowatt-hours, targeting up to 500 miles of range for all-electric sedans. Additionally, the platform is capable of outperforming today’s Hellcat V8s, delivering 0-to-60 times in the 2-second range.
Depending on the vehicle, front-, rear- and all-wheel drive are on the menu for STLA Large, but this platform is also versatile enough to support internal-combustion and hybrid powertrains, making it an extremely adaptable architecture.
Stellantis announced four separate electric vehicle architectures at its EV Day event back in July of 2021. In addition to STLA Large, the second of these platforms to be unveiled, there’s also STLA Small, STLA Medium and STLA Frame.
STLA Large will support vehicles between roughly 188 and 202 inches in length. Wheelbase measurements can run from 113 to a whisker more than 121 inches. Ground clearance is expected to max out at an off-road-ready 11.3 inches, while the largest tires this platform will support clock in at up to 32.6 inches in diameter.
This architecture, as well as the other three STLA platforms are also designed to support a range of advanced features including self-driving technology, the latest and greatest infotainment systems and the automaker’s next-generation electrical system. The announcement of the STLA Large architecture is exciting news, and we cannot wait to see — and experience — the diverse range of vehicles that will be supported by this platform.
