Fiat Panda-inspired low-cost EV is becoming concrete
Stellantis plans to move deeper into the market for affordable electric cars. News agencies quote Fiat executives confirming a Panda-inspired electric model costing less than 25,000 euros to compete with upcoming low-cost EVs by Renault or BYD.
Fiat brand chief Olivier Francois said there was a “real need for more affordable EVs” in an interview with Bloomberg. He also gave a timeline. Francois said that the new EV for less than 25,000 euros ($27,347) will debut in July 2024 to take on Renault’s Dacia Spring.
The model would also join another small electric car under the Stellantis umbrella next year. Beginning next year, the French Citroën brand will launch the ë-C3 at a base price of less than €25,000. Citroën has confirmed the European assembly at its plant in Slovakia to limit costs and better compete with the Chinese-built Dacia Spring and the upcoming electric Renault 5 to be made in France. However, the company revealed when talking to electrive that the model will differ from the ë-C3 currently being sold in India and South America. The European ë-C3 will have a bigger battery for a range of up to 420 kilometres, 120 kilometres more than what the version sold in India and Latin America.
For Fiat’s new Panda-inspired EV, Francois says, “it’s very likely that there will be synergies” with the platform used for the new Citroen ë-C3. The executive would not, however, go into more technical details regarding the motor and battery combination.
Still, the beginning of 2022 saw rumours that Fiat wanted to bring back the Panda as an electric series. At the time, the company based the new model family on the Centoventi concept, which Fiat unveiled in 2019 as a preview of a low-cost electric vehicle. In 2020, Fiat confirmed plans to put the Centoventi into production.
Fiat also plans to reintroduce its most popular product, the electric 500, in the US, Stellantis’s biggest profit pool. In earlier reports, Francois described the model strategy with two pillars, with the 500 series being the “style-oriented” offering. The Centoventi product line will focus on practicality.
Fiat wants to become an all-electric brand by 2030 at the latest. At the EV Day by Stellantis in 2021, the group said Fiat would go electric as soon as the electric cars were cheaper across the board than internal combustion engines. This process may now accelerate. Recent developments have seen buyers’ spending power diminished by inflation while Chinese carmakers entering Europe increase the pressure to deliver affordable EVs. BYD, for example, recently announced that it would bring five electric models to France, starting with the Atto 3 and Han and Tang electric cars. In addition, the Dolphin will be available from July and the Seal after the summer.
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