The design is vintage, the electric drive contemporary: The New 500 is Fiat’s farewell to the dogma that small cars must have an internal combustion engine. Our author Christoph M. Schwarzer considers the new Cinquecento far ahead of the electric car competition.

DHL Express has purchased 100 of the first E-Ducato vans for its European fleet as part of a partnership with Fiat Professional. As part of Deutsche Post DHL Group’s recently unveiled sustainability roadmap, DHL Express plans to expand its delivery fleet to 14,000 electric transporters by 2030.

The new 14-brand car company Stellantis has given more details about its electrification plans. These include four platforms for electrified models and more battery factories.

Fiat will reduce the production of the all-electric Fiat 500 at its Mirafiori plant in Turin from 300 to 210 units per day as of next week because the manufacturer is having difficulties with battery supplies.

IT service provider Atos has announced that it will fully electrify its nearly 5,500 company cars by the end of 2024. Atos has chosen Renault and Stellantis as its main suppliers of battery-electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

PSA and FCA have now completed their merger, paving the way for the creation of Stellantis. The new group’s ordinary shares will start trading on Euronext in Paris and Mercato Telematico Azionario in Milan on 18 January, and on the New York Stock Exchange on 19 January, each under the symbol “STLA”.

Fiat Chrysler plans to invest 755 million zloty (around 166 million euros) in its plant in Tychy in southern Poland to produce hybrid and electric cars for Jeep, Fiat and Alfa Romeo brands starting next year.

FCA Italy and Engie EPS have been awarded a contract by Italian grid operator Terna to manage 25 megawatts of electricity. This should provide ultra-fast frequency control services to Terna via a planned vehicle-to-grid (V2G) system at FCA’s Mirafiori headquarters site.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has teamed up with energy platform Kaluza to develop smarter charging services for its customers. The first stage of development will see a new charging service offered to Fiat 500 EV customers, using the Kaluza platform.

Honda has joined the CO2 pool of Tesla and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) in the EU, according to an official document from the European Commission. The Honda e registrations appear insufficient to reduce Honda’s overall fleet emissions.

Fiat has introduced a new version of its electric 500 – the Fiat 500 3+1, which is characterised by an additional door on the passenger side, hinged in the opposite direction. The Italian carmaker has now revealed the prices for the basic version.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will invest around 1.5 billion Canadian dollars in its plant in Windsor in the Canadian province of Ontario and will also produce electric cars and plug-in hybrids there from 2025. A few weeks ago, the Unifor union had negotiated a very similar deal with Ford.

The planned merger of the car companies PSA and FCA under the name Stellantis will apparently be able to rely on three electric car platforms. In addition to the existing platforms eCMP and eVMP, according to a new report from Italy, a base developed by FCA will also trade for larger electric cars.

Fiat released pricing of its all-electric van running as the e-Ducato that will be available for less than GPB 50,000. So far the first variant is exclusive to people ordering in Great Britain with deliveries to start during the final quarter of this year.

The planned merger of the car companies PSA and FCA under the name Stellantis has apparently already led to a decision about sharing vehicle platforms: According to an article in the Spanish media, FCA is abandoning its developments for B-segment vehicles.

The eCharge4Drivers project is to conduct demonstrations across key cities in the EU to understand better consumers’ perspective on EV charging infrastructure. As one of 32 stakeholders, ABB will test new DC charging stations to EU standards.

Digital Charging Solutions (DCS) and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) have developed a joint public charging service. My Easy Charge gives customers of the FCA Group’s BEV and PHEV models access to over 130,000 charging points in 21 European countries.

As the first limited version ‘La Prima’ of the Fiat 500 electric car is now no longer available as a convertible, now, pre-orders for the more affordable hatchback version are starting.

One year after showing the prototype and some technical data, Fiat Professional is unveiling the production version of the E-Ducato. The market launch will start “in the coming months” with the opening of the order books in the main European markets.

Buyers in the UK may now put an order in for the first 500 of Fiat’s extra compact electric car 500e. Prices for the limited ‘La Prima’ edition come in below the 30k threshold after government subsidies.

After a two and a half year pilot project to test the use of electric delivery vans in London traffic, the final report is now available. The test looked at the performance of larger electric vehicles in comparison to similar diesel models and small electric vans.

Respirators are not the only necessity that carmakers can produce: More and more carmakers want to donate medical face masks during the coronavirus crisis. In Europe, manufacturers are already retooling their production lines.

First carmakers announce closures of factories in Europe due to the Coronavirus crisis unfolding on the continent. PSA will lockdown all vehicle production plants in Europe by 27 March and the French carmaker is not the only one.

Fiat will apparently also build the Panda in its own electric version. The car manufacturer has apparently decided to put the Concept Centoventi that was presented in 2019 into series production.

According to CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato, a few weeks ago Peugeot decided to keep making its small car model 108, and the executive added that Peugeot could then offer the 108 as a pure electric car – possibly with the technology of the new Fiat 500.

Fiat has just premiered the battery-electric 500, which is simply called the “new” 500. The differences to the previously sold combustion engine go beyond the drive system and the price for the small electric car is relatively high.

GKN Automotive continues their tests on the 3-in-1 powertrains and has several prototypes underway in the Arctic Circle. New inverters and motors are being used in the test vehicles based on the Tesla Model 3 and Fiat Ducato.

Fiat Chrysler has completed the production lines for the electric version of the Fiat 500 at its Mirafiori plant in Turin and has started production of the pre-series. Production of the hybrid version of the Maserati Ghibli has also started.

Fiat Chrysler wants to set up a joint venture with Foxconn, known primarily as an iPhone contract manufacturer, for the production of electric cars for the Chinese market. Both groups confirmed the plan while details are still being negotiated.

It is looking like Fiat Chrysler might buy the use of a Tesla technology for its brands’ electric cars. During a conversation with stock analysts, FCA boss Mike Manley revealed that his company was considering this option. It would not be the first partnership between the two companies.