Stellantis confirmed the award of the STLA Small platform to the Spanish plants in Vigo and Zaragoza. In December, the Group confirmed that production of vehicles based on the STLA Small platform will also begin at the Italian plant in Pomigliano from 2028.
According to the Group’s press release, competitiveness, expertise, the social climate and support from public authorities were all factors in favour of awarding the platform to the two plants. The next generations of the corresponding models in the B segment are to be manufactured on the basis of the STLA Small.
The fact that the STLA Small will be awarded to the factories in Vigo in the west of the country and Zaragoza in the northeast was considered very likely or almost a foregone conclusion – but final confirmation has so far been lacking. Stellantis already manufactures B-segment models in both plants on the current CMP platform and e-CMP for the electric variants. These include the Peugeot e-2008 from Vigo and the Peugeot e-208, Opel Corsa Electric and the electric version of the Lancia Ypsilon from Zaragoza. The next model generations are therefore likely to be the successors to the aforementioned models – in the case of the Lancia, however, there are rumours that its production will return to Italy. The Group had already confirmed in December that production of vehicles based on the STLA Small platform will also begin at the Italian plant in Pomigliano from 2028.
However, Stellantis has not announced when the first models based on the STLA Small will be built in Spain. There is only talk of the “next model generation.” There had already been reports of possible delays. For example, there was talk of the e-208 completing the generation changeover to the new platform from December 2026, followed by the Opel Corsa in May 2027. In October 2024, there was then speculation of a delay of up to two years – the new e-2008 from Vigo would not roll off the production line until September 2029, and not 2027.
Without clarification from Stellantis, we can only speculate here – especially as there is apparently another variable with joint venture partner Leapmotor: as the Polish government voted in favour of the EU’s special tariffs on Chinese electric cars, the planned production of the Leapmotor B10 at the Polish Stellantis plant in Tychy is said to be in doubt – Zaragoza is said to be one of the alternatives. As the three current models are to be built together on Line 2 from 2025, as Line 1 is being converted for the STLA Small, a decision regarding Leapmotor would affect the entire production planning for Zaragoza. It is possible that the recent confirmation from Stellantis means that this option is off the table – but there is no specific mention of it.
The STLA Small is a ‘multi-energy BEV platform’, which was developed for electric cars but also enables combustion engines – unlike the CMP combustion engine platform, which had to be modified for electric cars to become the eCMP. The electric cars based on the new platform should be able to travel up to 500 kilometres. The batteries for the small electric cars from Spain will then use cells from CATL, as the Chinese battery manufacturer and Stellantis are jointly building an LFP cell factory in Zaragoza.
