In order to make it simpler to maintain electric vehicles on the road and profit from an expanding range of services related to greener mobility, Stellantis established a “Charging & Energy” business unit on Tuesday.

By the end of this year, the unit will offer a platform called Free2move Charge that will give customers access to over 500,000 charging points in Europe “through partners,” according to the company. This is because the industry’s still insufficient charging network has caused “charging anxiety” for all drivers of electric vehicles (EVs).

However, when competitors like Ford and General Motors inked agreements to adopt Tesla’s charging standard in North America, the world’s third-largest automaker by sales underlined that it was still considering the technology.

“We look forward to discussing more of that soon,” Ricardo Stamatti, senior vice president of the new Charging & Energy Business Unit, said.

By 2030, battery EVs will account for 50% of sales of light-duty trucks and passenger cars in the United States and 100% of sales of passenger cars in Europe under the brands of Stellantis, which also owns Jeep, Ram, Peugeot, Fiat, and Opel.

According to Stamatti, the group sees commercial potential in operating charging stations.

“The margin on energy (used for charging points) itself is fairly rich,” he said.

“But ultimately charging is going to be more than energy, it’s going to be about what people do while charging (…), think of advertising, retail, media consumption”.

For private Stellantis brand customers, the Free2move Charge “ecosystem” will provide additional services, such as assistance with setting up a home charging station, as well as for companies.

Additionally, it will give users access to a network of public charging stations “through partners” in North America, Europe, and additional locations that will be revealed later, according to Stellantis.

Energy firms, retailers, hardware manufacturers, and utilities will be among the important partners, and there will be large investments made, he continued. Over the course of 2023, more information will be given, including about the financial goals for the business unit.

(Adapted from ThePrint.in)