Star in the making?

Never has a Stella been so significant. No, not a pint of Belgium’s finest enjoyed at 6am in the airport to kick-start the holiday of a lifetime but rather Stellantis’s new STLA (pronounced Stella, geddit?) architecture.

It’s going to underpin 2 million cars per year from the many and diverse brands within the Stellantis stable, and the first of them is the third-generation Peugeot 3008.

Given that the current 3008 has been a phenomenal success for Peugeot since its 2017 launch, selling 1.3 million times in 130 countries, the pressure is on for the new one to not just keep that run of form going but also to ensure sound fundamentals for so many other models to come.

The STLA Medium architecture (there are also Small, Large and Frame ones in the works for other sizes of car) has been designed for EVs first and foremost, then adapted to house ICE and plug-in hybrid…