- Fiat will shut its Mirafiori manufacturing facility down for 4 weeks, beginning Friday.
- Stellantis claims that it is because of low demand for the two-door EV metropolis automotive.
Information of an “EV slowdown” definitely is a headline grabber; though gross sales of EVs proceed to develop throughout the globe, that development isn’t protecting tempo with entrenched automakers’s unique plans to rapidly and seamlessly shunt ICE automotive consumers into EVs, isn’t going all that easily. Many automakers have reevaluated their EV plans, inflicting them to fast-track once-sidelined ICE automotive initiatives, and hit the brakes on their EV merchandise.
The most recent sufferer of a softer-than-expected EV market? The Fiat 500e. Based on reporting from Reuters, Stellantis introduced that it is going to be idling the plant that produces the two-door electrical metropolis automotive for 4 weeks, partly as a result of poor demand. Stellantis advised Reuters that this measure was mandatory as a result of there weren’t sufficient orders inside and outdoors Europe to maintain the output from the Italian manufacturing facility. The shutdown interval will begin this Friday, and final for 4 weeks.
At the moment, the Fiat 500e is barely made in a single manufacturing facility—the Mirafiori manufacturing facility in Torino, Italy. It is a historic manufacturing facility, located within the hometown of Fiat itself. It’s additionally the location of Italy’s Automotive labor union grumbling — native employees desire a larger quantity, extra reasonably priced mannequin to be constructed on the plant, as a substitute of simply the Fiat 500e. Thus, Stellantis will make investments $110 million within the plant and undertake what it calls a “larger efficiency battery,” to supply a hybrid model of the brand new 500e in the identical plant.
Though there’s a very actual softening of EV demand, I can’t assist however assume that a part of the shortage of demand for the 500e is partially as a result of Stellantis not protecting the mannequin present sufficient. Coincidentally, I’ve a 500e on mortgage from the producer this week. My full driving impressions will are available in an extended type, however the 500e’s cute styling and charming driving dynamics can’t overcome its horrible worth proposition. Even in Europe, the place consumers are extra prepared to pay a premium for smaller EVs with much less vary, the 500e isn’t the one choice as when it launched in 2020 for many European markets.
Simply contemplate this: in Italy alone, a base mannequin Fiat 500e is 29,950 EUR for a 93-horsepower mannequin with a dinky 24 kWh battery. An MG 4 could possibly be had for not rather more at 31,970 EUR. The MG 4 has 51 kWh, 168 horsepower, a usable again seat and an additional set of doorways. Even in Stellantis’s personal umbrella, the Peugeot e-208, and bigger Fiat 600e aren’t all that rather more than the 500e, however they provide extra vary and area.
Fiat was adamant that the period of the $ 49-per-month lease would by no means come again. However, I don’t see a approach out right here: the Fiat 500e’s Achilles heel is its excessive worth. If Fiat needs to get extra folks in seats, it wants to determine a method to deliver the worth down. That’s not simple, subsidies and intelligent accounting to get lease costs artificially low aren’t wholesome for the model. Maybe the hybrid mannequin due in 2025 or 2026 will get extra folks behind the wheel.
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