- Fiat will shut its Mirafiori manufacturing unit down for 4 weeks, beginning Friday.
- Stellantis claims that it is because of low demand for the two-door EV metropolis automobile.
Information of an “EV slowdown” actually is a headline grabber; though gross sales of EVs proceed to develop throughout the globe, that progress isn’t preserving tempo with entrenched automakers’s authentic plans to rapidly and seamlessly shunt ICE automobile consumers into EVs, isn’t going all that easily. Many automakers have reevaluated their EV plans, inflicting them to fast-track once-sidelined ICE automobile tasks, and hit the brakes on their EV merchandise.
The newest 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 automobile for 4 weeks, partly on account of poor demand. Stellantis informed Reuters that this measure was mandatory as a result of there weren’t sufficient orders inside and out of doors Europe to maintain the output from the Italian manufacturing unit. The shutdown interval will begin this Friday, and final for 4 weeks.
At the moment, the Fiat 500e is just made in a single manufacturing unit—the Mirafiori manufacturing unit in Torino, Italy. It is a historic manufacturing unit, located within the hometown of Fiat itself. It’s additionally the positioning of Italy’s Automotive labor union grumbling — native employees desire a larger quantity, extra reasonably priced mannequin to be constructed on the plant, as an alternative 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 dearth of demand for the 500e is partially on account of Stellantis not preserving the mannequin present sufficient. Coincidentally, I’ve a 500e on mortgage from the producer this week. My full driving impressions will are available an extended kind, 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 may very well be had for not way 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 manner out right here: the Fiat 500e’s Achilles heel is its excessive value. If Fiat needs to get extra individuals in seats, it wants to determine a technique to convey the worth down. That’s not straightforward, 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 individuals behind the wheel.
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