Daily Automotive

Daily Automotive

Fiat 500 EV

Posted: 04 Apr 2011 06:20 PM PDT

The North American market is just waiting for the next year, but the 500 EV, fully electric version of the famous utilitarian chic Turin, already makes itself heard. And not for its quality.It is the CEO of Fiat, Sergio Marchionne, to declare that the 500 EV Chrysler Group will lose the baby well-Fiat $ 10,000 on each unit produced and sold. Nevertheless, the price of this 500 will be at least three times higher than the corresponding petrol version.

They are lithium ion batteries that the crew to raise the costs dramatically. And even though the torque seems to promise great fun for the driver, but with a decent battery life (about 160 miles on a charge), in Turin winds discontent.


The problem of costs is not just because of this upcoming electric version of the 500 bears a substantial mistrust that embraces the entire field of electric mobility. It is known as Fiat has preferred to focus on other horses in its race to the reduction of CO2, for example focusing on the improvement of the thermodynamic engine, with the recent Multiair, nutrition or natural gas, of which Fiat is a leader. Well, these are the trump cards of Marchionne.

In particular, according to the opinion of the CEO, own the North American market, thanks to its rich deposits, could afford to feed its entire fleet to natural gas for the next hundred years at least. Distribution network permitting. So why is being used in the U.S. electric version of the 500? The answer may lie in the 10% stake in Chrysler that President Barack Obama has promised to Turin where he demonstrated a particular ecological sensitivity. And the White House really believe in self supply. It’s March 30 announcement within the next five years to renew its entire fleet of government vehicles (we are talking about 600,000 vehicles from cars and trucks) vehicles with supply only alternative to oil. The stated aim is indeed to significantly reduce imports of crude oil.

The motive was not financial but the only one to affect the product plan is also a need to develop know-how for the next hybrid vehicles. It was in fact announced the first car of this type of Fiat Group for the next Detroit Motor Show, scheduled for January 2012. According to initial statements, it will be a large car, but the brand is still unknown who will be responsible to implement it.