Stellantis to launch Free2move Charge suite of EV services, products

Stellantis said it is launching a suite of electric vehicle-related services and products called Free2move Charge in North America and Europe this year.

Free2move Charge will be managed by the new Stellantis Charging and Energy business unit, the automaker said Tuesday.

Stellantis sees Free2move Charge as a way to reach its EV sales goals by removing barriers to EV ownership such as charging anxiety. The company aiming for all its light-vehicle sales to be fully electric in Europe in 2030 and at least half in the U.S. in that time frame.

Stellantis is taking a similiar approach to General Motors, which announced last year that it was developing a portfolio of products and services that seek to add convenience to the EV-ownership experience. Stellantis said Free2move Charge will embody the "e-ABC Promise: easy to Always Be Charged."

Free2move Charge is broken down into three arenas: home, business and a public-facing component for customers wherever they go that includes access to charging networks.

Free2move Charge Home will support consumers with installation, financing and warranty of home charging and other energy hardware and services. The company said options can involve AC charging cables and wall boxes that consumers have today. Future options also could include Vehicle-2-Home, Vehicle-2-Grid and complete energy management systems with features such as touch-free wireless solutions.

"It's not just about the hardware there, but it's about the care plan, 24/7 support, it's about making it easy for our customers to actually be charged," Ricardo Stamatti, senior vice president of Stellantis' charging and energy business unit, told reporters Monday.

Free2move Charge Business will bring solutions for companies and foster employee charging while at work. As EV volumes grow, Stamatti said being able to charge at work will be just as important as home charging.

"For the business side, there's going to be the needs of everybody who buys our commercial products," Stamatti said. "When we sell the Ram BEV or the ProMaster van, you're going to have small, medium, large businesses that the vehicle is part of the equation.

"The rest of that equation is going to be all the questions that they're going to have about electrifying is about infrastructure. It's about the products and services and fleet management that they actually need to be able to operate those vehicles."

Free2move Charge GO, Stellantis said, will offer access to the largest possible network of public charging points through partners in North America, Europe and other regions. Stamatti said this portion is "about covering our customers wherever they go. This is network aggregation, this is at our dealerships, this is bringing a charge to a customer when they need it."

Free2move Charge GO also will deal with payment for public charging access and 24/7 support. Over time, plans to add reservations, loyalty programs, subscriptions, prepaid packages, single invoice/billing and the ability to deliver a charge to a requested location when needed.

Free2move Charge will use the Stellantis Energy Cloud that will be integrating with vehicle-branded mobile apps and the STLA SmartCockpit platform launching in 2024 to deliver routes and charging recommendations to customers based on their actual usage and needs.

Stamatti said: "For the customers that opt in, for the customers that are a bigger part of our ecosystem, we will be able to then tailor offers, to tailor energy management to lower the total cost of ownership across these arenas [and] induce smart offers that are in real time."