STELLANTIS AUTO SAS

Their core work

Stellantis Auto SAS (formerly PSA Peugeot Citroën) is a major French automotive manufacturer that brings industrial-scale vehicle production expertise to European R&D consortia. Their H2020 involvement centers on three pillars: automated and connected driving systems, advanced robotics for flexible manufacturing lines, and the transition to electrified powertrains. They serve as the real-world testbed where research prototypes meet mass-production constraints — validating technologies in actual factory floors and on-road piloting campaigns across Europe.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2015–2018), Stellantis focused on foundational automotive R&D — advanced materials (polymers, lithium-sulphur batteries), efficient urban vehicles, and initial robotic manufacturing automation (LICORNE, their sole coordinated project). From 2019 onward, their portfolio shifted decisively toward digitalization: automated driving at scale (L3Pilot, Hi-Drive), smart robotics with human-centered interaction (ODIN), AI for manufacturing (ASSISTANT), and green powertrain transition (ECO DRIVE). The trajectory shows a clear move from component-level research toward integrated digital-physical systems for both the factory floor and the road.

Stellantis is converging its manufacturing robotics and connected vehicle expertise toward fully digitalized, automated production and driving systems — partners working on Industry 4.0 or autonomous mobility will find strong alignment.

How they like to work

Stellantis operates almost exclusively as a participant (14 of 16 projects), contributing industrial validation and testing infrastructure rather than leading research agendas. They coordinated only once (LICORNE, a robotics project), which is typical for large OEMs that prefer to let research institutions lead while they provide real-world use cases. With 233 unique partners across 26 countries, they are a well-connected hub — valuable for consortium builders who need a major automotive end-user to ground their proposals in industrial reality.

Extensive European network spanning 233 unique partners across 26 countries, built through 16 projects in diverse technical domains. Their partnerships bridge the automotive, robotics, ICT, and materials research communities — a rare cross-domain footprint for a single industrial partner.

What sets them apart

As one of Europe's largest automotive OEMs, Stellantis offers something few partners can: access to real production lines and vehicle fleets for testing at industrial scale. Their dual expertise in factory-floor robotics and on-road automated driving means they can validate research in both manufacturing and mobility contexts. For consortium builders, having Stellantis signals strong industrial relevance and boosts the credibility of exploitation plans.

Highlights from their portfolio

• L3Pilot
  Largest single funding (EUR 2.4M) — a flagship automated driving pilot testing Level 3 automation on European roads with real traffic.
• ODIN
  Represents the convergence of their robotics and digital expertise — modular pilot lines with mobile robots, digital twins, and human-centered interaction.
• Hi-Drive
  Their most recent major project (2021–2025), pushing connected automated driving toward deployment with large-scale cross-border demonstrations.