DS Automobiles unveiled its new DS Penske-run Gen3Evo challenger in Paris on Wednesday. But could it be the French manufacturer's final Formula E design?
The promoters of Formula E are confident that the DS and Maserati brands from the Stellantis Automotive group will remain in the championship beyond 2026 when Gen4 begins.
Jean-Eric Vergne and Maximilian Guenther will spearhead the DS Penske attack in the new 2024-25 season with the team looking to get its first win since February 2023 when Vergne triumphed in Hyderabad.
DS Automobiles is Formula E’s second most successful manufacturer, taking two teams' titles and drivers' crowns between 2018 and 2021. It has taken 18 E-Prix wins with DS Virgin, DS Techeetah and Maserati MSG since it entered the series in 2015.
But as plans for Gen4 start to be made, the backdrop to Stellantis Motorsport’s FE situation has started to get complicated - mainly due to factors outside of its Formula E activity.
Stellantis chief executive Carlos Tavares warned last week at the Paris Motor Show that delays to the automotive EV transition pose a “trap” that may bring higher costs. Tavares, an occasional competitor in motorsport himself, also cautioned against diluting regulations to cut emissions by nations.
Just before the DS unveiling in Paris last week, Tavares told the Financial Times in Paris that “making a transition for [EVs] longer is a big trap".
“When you make a longer transition, in fact, you don’t replace the old world by the new one. You add up the new world to the old," he added.
European car companies have lobbied regulators to plan changes to new emissions standards that will come into force next year after a slower than forecast growth in EV sales.
Demand for EVs fell sharply in several countries in 2023, including Germany and other European markets where state subsidies were discontinued or cut.
That could have a significant bearing on Stellantis’ marketing plans up until 2030, which is when the Gen4 era of Formula E will end.
The Penske side of the DS Penske collaboration has recently invested in a new special projects facility in Witney, UK called Penske Autosport Research Labs. This is currently being equipped with a small manufacturer facility and also houses a state-of-the-art driver-in-the-loop simulator via sim specialist Ansible Motion.
This has led to speculation that Penske is positioning itself to become a manufacturer in Formula E itself from 2026 onwards, or to work with a new manufacturer that will join Gen4.
But time is running out for either of those eventualities to transpire as Stellantis waits for the right time to either commit to Formula E with its present two-brand DS + Maserati attack, downscale to a single brand or exit altogether.
A final decision has to happen before the end of 2024 as investment and R&D for the first Gen4 season will properly kick in then.
The Race understands that a design cell within DS Automobiles has started a Gen4 concept and that a decision on DS and Maserati’s futures as brands for the Gen4 period will be made in the coming weeks.
DS Performance director Eugenio Franzetti told The Race at the DS Penske launch in Paris this week that the Gen4 decision was “a complex situation”.
“We are working hard on it, presenting different solutions and different business plan,” he added.
“We are not so far [away], but we have not decided yet. But for the next two seasons, so 11 and 12 [2024-25 and 2025-26] it is sure we will be there.”
Formula E’s chief operating officer, Alberto Longo said that he was “super confident” Stellantis would stay in Formula E in at least some capacity.
“Obviously, everybody has their own timing in order to take their own decisions,” added Longo.
“We have heard the news about the Stellantis group on their challenges that they're facing themselves, and that obviously had an impact on probably taking the decision at one time or another. But I'm super confident they will continue.”
The situation is further complicated by Tavares’ mandate as chief executive of Stellantis expiring in 2026, when he is set to retire, with recent rumours suggesting that Stellantis chairman John Elkann, the single largest shareholder of Stellantis through the EXOR company, is considering Renault CEO Luca de Meo as a successor to Tavares.
In July, Tavares told automotive industry reporters that “If they [brands] don't make money, we'll shut them down. We cannot afford to have brands that do not make money."
The comments came just after Stellantis delivered worse-than-expected first-half of 2024 results. The world’s fourth largest automaker does not issue figures for individual brands, except for Maserati which reported an €82million adjusted operating loss in the first half of the present year.
Maserati’s long-term future in Formula E will ultimately come down to Stellantis’ positioning of its brands in the series. Although the operating side of the team - the Monaco Sports Group that forms the MSG of the team name and used to race as Venturi - is known to be looking at the possibility of at least additional investment or potentially new ownership in the near future.
