Anything but EVs! Stellantis joins vegetable oil vans project

Today, Stellantis launched “HVO Aurora,” which promotes the use of hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) in the company’s light commercial vehicles (mostly vans). The project started at Star*Up, an internal program meant to help employees turn ideas into reality.

HVO Aurora is designed to certify and track real-world use of HVO, which is made from waste materials including used cooking oils and animal fats, to reduce CO₂ emissions and reliance on petroleum. Stellantis’ tracking and certification system records fuel type, trip distance, and total use on central servers, providing businesses with information on their use of alternative fuel.

The project launched today with a month-long European road tour in collaboration with SP3H, a French sensor company. Two Stellantis vans, a Citroën Berlingo and a Fiat Ducato, are using SP3H’s connected FluidBox Micro sensor on a journey across Europe to collect real-world usage data. The goal is to demonstrate that existing vans can be used, with no changes to infrastructure, on this recovered fuel.

All [diesel-powered] Stellantis cars and light-duty commercial vehicles [in Europe] are compatible with HVO diesel fuel (EN15940 fuel standard). Many other current Euro 5 and Euro 6 diesel vehicles can also use it without any modification.