It wasn’t too many years ago the Consumer Electronics Show was strictly the domain of purchasers from big-chain computer stores and a scattered basement dweller who smelled like coding and stale popcorn. These days, CES is one of the hottest tickets of the year for witnessing product reveals including – in recent years – all manner of tech from the world’s automakers.
Stellantis has announced what they’ll have on hand at their booth, a roster that includes an EV that plucks its name from the halls of history at Citroën.
We’ll take this opportunity to remind all hands that Stellantis isn’t just comprised of American and Italian marques – plenty of French influence abounds as well. This explains why Jeeps and the natty Chrysler Airflow will share display space with Citroëns and something called a ‘DS E-Tense FE21’. Yes, the French remain a bit weird.
So let’s start with a machine from that country, then. The Citroën Ami has an unusual cube-like shape and symmetrical parts, showing up for work technically as a two-passenger electric quadricycle. This means it can be driven in France without a license by those of a certain age (early 30’s) or by those older than 14 who have an AM license, which some in Europe refer to as a moped license. That latter detail means it is speed limited to 28 mph. This two-passenger urban EV has an all-electric range of about 50 miles. Don’t expect to buy one through traditional channels on this side of the pond anytime soon.
What you will be able to buy in America, of course, are large-and-in-charge Jeeps. Stellantis will have copies of the previously-announced Wrangler 4xe and Grand Cherokee 4xe on hand, machines that can trek more than 20 miles on silent electric power before beginning to rely on a gasoline engine for propulsion duties. Jeep reiterates their plan to offer a fully electric Jeep vehicle in every SUV segment by 2025, a date which is – to put it mildly – soon. Tick tock, mothertruckers.
Most interesting will be the Chrysler Airflow concept, a model of which we’ve seen glimpses during the Stellantis EV Day and Software Day presentations. Chrysler says this model is responsible for leading the brand’s transformation to “clean mobility” and “seamlessly connected customer experiences”, phrases which make us shudder but are par for the course in every marketing missive these days. Given the fact that corporate overlords have given a 10-year leash for each of their 14 brands to prove themselves, the Airflow is surely a big deal for Chrysler’s survival as a stand-alone brand in the House of Stellantis. On this side of the pond, Jeep is surely safe – as is Ram – but the rest of it is up in the air.
Barring global meltdowns, your author will be boots on the ground at CES in January. We hope to get a close look at these machines on the event floor.
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Wow. Showing a car like that at a US show proves how tone-deaf they are.
Tesla made a fortune selling electric cars that look like…..cars.
Why must EVs look like stupid penalty boxes?
Tone deaf to whom? Something this crowd often forgets is that what turns on the B&B isn’t necessarily what every vehicle buyer in America aspires to.
Tiny kei cars are not feasible in the US market, despite their decent utility and lower cost.
Smart car annual sales were in the 4-figure range for a decade. They are an interesting novelty, but I hope Stellantis doesn’t use such a vehicle as its centerpiece. The Airflow concept is a better start.
But doesn’t the article just say they are showing it at CES, not marketing it for America (the little kei car)? I could just be playing the jingoist here, but pretty sure CES is the largest event like this in the world so showing tech vehicle stuff here for the foreign press doesn’t seem to be a surprise.
PSA promises raft of EVs that will never sell in USDM, film at 11.
Remember all those Fiats that Americans were going to buy from FCA? Yeah, me neither. Those who fail to learn from mistakes are doomed to repeat them.
The Jeep Renegade and Cherokee (both built on Fiat platforms) are pretty common vehicles.
I guess we’ll see, I’m personally interested in some of the 4xe products. I remember only 2 years ago people on this sight saying it was too late for Stellantis, they missed their window to make an EV and were now irrelevant.
Small, stupid, tiny EVs are designed for one purpose – to minimize battery cost.
EVs that Americans want to own and drive will require large, expensive, batteries. This is a mathematically inescapable fact of battery chemistry.
I’m guessing that won’t be able to sell that Citroen because it’s listed as a quadricycle. In the US, regulations require a motorcycle to have no more than 3 wheels. Remember the Dodge Tomahawk, that awesome show-car “motorcycle” powered by a Viper V-10 from 15 or so years ago? It had 4 wheels (extremely narrow front and rear tracks), and couldn’t be constructed to meet federal regulations. If Stellantis is calling that little thing a quadricycle, it’s because it doesn’t meet automotive (most likely) safety regulations.
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