The first evidence of body sharing and logo swapping within the mighty new Stellantis group came rapidly via the two former groups/rivals ranges of light commercial vehicles (LCVs). A series of smaller panel vans suddenly received a bewildering array of marque badges and model names, depending on customer preference to deliver goods in their brand of choice, be it a Fiat, Peugeot, Opel, Citroën, Vauxhall, RAM, and so on, all essentially being the same vehicle with the shared pressed steel body panels, but (currently) with a handful of models being differentiated by the selection of out-going petrol and/or diesel engines. The new or pending zero emission LCV versions will all share the same common electric components, however.
Just a couple of months into the birth of Stellantis, the Group’s Chief Executive Carlos Tavares stated that each of the vast vehicle maker’s 14 car brands will receive funding over the next ten years, but ultimately with each marque will have to use this decade to prove itself viable. This includes vulnerable and largely forgotten marques such as Lancia, Chrysler, Dodge and Vauxhall. Referring to the 14 brands that now fall under the Stellantis umbrella at the time, Tavares said, “for the time being, we love them all and you cannot kill what you love.”
Now, almost nine months into its formation as a legal entity, Stellantis has just revealed its hand on the passenger car front with its first blatant piece of badge engineering, taking its funky Citroën Ami EV urban two-seater and peeling off the famous double chevron logos to ‘reinvent’ the diminutive electric model as an Opel (and ultimately, possibly a Vauxhall for the UK market if demand is strong enough, although this has still to be confirmed at the time of writing).
From its funky and highly brand-appropriate Citroën Ami EV, Stellantis has now unveiled the Opel Rocks-E, a very mildly reworked version of the Citroën, emblazoned with Opel ‘Blitz’ logos in place of the stick on double chevron badges.