neWS

In what is being perceived as a blow for the European Automobile Manufacturer’s Association (ACEA), Stellantis has announced its withdrawal from the association and its intention to establish an alternative ‘Freedom of Mobility Forum’ to address urgent mobility issues.

The car giant, formed with the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group, said the forum will hold a yearly open meeting of passionate problem-solvers committed to fact-based decision making that identifies how to bring clean, safe, and affordable freedom of mobility for society in the face of global warming implications. It confirmed that it will cease to be a member of ACEA by the end of this year.

“The environmental challenges ahead of us coupled with a rapidly evolving business environment require an efficient, global and inclusive 360-degree approach involving all those who wish to contribute to building sustainable mobility,” said Carlos Tavares, Stellantis CEO. “We intend to create a public forum in which contributors can come together to address the key questions surrounding the debate on decarbonized mobility and provide actionable next steps for us to take together. Access to clean, safe and affordable mobility for the citizens across the world is at stake.”

Founded in 1991, ACEA is the main lobbying organisation for Europe’s 16 major car, truck, van and bus makers. The group issued the following statement in reaction to the Stellantis announcement: “While the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) respects the decision of Stellantis to withdraw its membership of the association at the end of this year, we regret to see them leave. We remain committed to act as a strong common voice of EU-based car, truck, van and bus makers.”

Research undertaken by fleet technology solutions provider epyx indicates that there is increasing potential for the use of connected vehicle technology in fleets to replace the various telematics solutions currently being used.

Matt Waller, Director of Connected Car at epyx’s parent company, Fleetcor said that adoption of connected vehicle technology for fleets was already reaching a crucial tipping-point and that, by the middle of the decade, finding a non-connected car or van being operated by a business would be unusual. The company’s research showed that 78% of new ICE cars and vans and 97% of electric vehicles registered on its 1link Service Network platform between 2020 and 2022 had connected vehicle technology.

“As we have been discussing in the market, we see connected vehicle data emerging as the successor technology to telematics during the next few years but this does depend on vehicles having the hardware fitted to make this possible.”

“For many years, there have been three main barriers to connected vehicle data use by fleets. First was the availability of data from manufacturers, second was the percentage of vehicles that had the technology fitted and third was the means to present that information to fleets in a format that makes it genuinely productive.”

“The first two issues are quickly being resolved within the market and the third is very much an area of deep expertise for epyx, with more than two decades of experience in working with fleets to turn data into insight and then action.”

“We see potential for connected vehicle data across the fleet management value chain – including service and maintenance, remarketing, risk management and more – and are very excited about the prospect of bringing our first connected product to the market,” concluded Matt.