Qualcomm and Stellantis Announce Multi-Year Deal to Bring Snapdragon Digital Chassis Tech to New Vehicles

The News: Qualcomm and Stellantis announced a multi-year agreement to bring Snapdragon® Digital Chassis Solutions to 14 Stellantis brands. By using the Snapdragon Cockpit Platforms and 5G capabilities for telematics systems, Stellantis and Qualcomm will be able to deliver intelligent, customizable, immersive in-vehicle experiences to customers, beginning in 2024. Read the full announcement from Qualcomm here.

Qualcomm and Stellantis Announce Multi-Year Deal to Bring Snapdragon Digital Chassis Tech to New Vehicles

Analyst Take: This multi-year deal is big for both Stellantis and Qualcomm. Stellantis brands include Jeep, Chrysler, Dodger, Fiat, and Maserati — to name a few. For Qualcomm, its another big design win as the company continues to proliferate its brand and technology further into the automotive space. Stellantis will be able to leverage Qualcomm’s “building block” approach to next generation vehicle technology to continually improve the in-vehicle experience for drivers. These continuous enhancements should play a part in speeding up Stellantis’ development of vehicles to compete with the likes of Tesla, Lucid, and Rivian, which are born on next-gen platforms, as well as traditional automotive manufacturers. All of which, should also play a role in making its vehicles more attractive to consumers.

The Details

Unlike some previous partnership agreements, Qualcomm and Stellantis laid out plans for how the Snapdragon Digital Chassis solutions will be used in Stellantis’ vehicles. Details include:

• Snapdragon Cockpit Platforms to power the infotainment system for Stellantis’ STLA SmartCockpit, delivering high quality graphics, voice-controlled console with premium communication throughout the vehicle, and a fully immersive in-vehicle experience.
• Snapdragon Cockpit Platforms will also provide an enhanced level of digital intelligence to STLA Brain, improving the personal assistant capabilities.
• Over-the-air upgrades will allow the vehicle to keep up with technology and evolve over time, which is perhaps one of the more impressive uses of the technologies.
• Diagnostics and repairs will be completed over the air as well to ensure seamless operation of all major systems.

Adding to the Pipeline

Qualcomm is continuing to add to its automotive pipeline that was estimated to be more than $13 billion at the end of 2021, and this deal will expand upon that number. Customer demands for better in-vehicle experiences are growing significantly, putting pressure on automakers to step up the investment and timeline for improving technology driven in-vehicle systems. Qualcomm, with its modular approach to its driving platform, is ready to help manufacturers meet this demand in infotainment, telematics, and with its recent Arriver acquisition L2+ ADAS.

Overall, I believe this is a sound move for both companies. Stellantis, which is a major player in the global automotive market, gets to bring technology to its diverse lineup of vehicles, while this partnership furthers Qualcomm’s ambitions to be a major household name in the automotive space. Stellantis joins Ferrari, Volvo, Renault, BMW, and GM who have all partnered with Qualcomm in the last year.

I continue to see Qualcomm as on the right track with its explosive growth in design wins and coinciding revenue gains. This partnership should please investors and shareholders for both companies and for Qualcomm be a source of material net new automotive revenue.

Disclosure: Futurum Research is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.

Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of Futurum Research as a whole.

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Image Credit: Qualcomm

The original version of this article was first published on Futurum Research.