Tavares: The Fiat 500 hybrid will save the electric 500

Stellantis' ambition, announced at the Paris Motor Show, is to increase production to 100,000 cars a year.

By: Alessandro Lago

Oct 19, 2024 at 2:42am ET

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The electric 500 costs too much and is therefore not selling. This is shown by the figures and the consequent halt in production at the Stellantis plant in Mirafiori, which in Italy has become a subject of public debate between protests from trade unions and bipartisan criticism from politicians.

The issue was also raised at the Paris Motor Show by Carlos Tavares who pressed by journalists took the opportunity to explain the strategy for relaunching the Italian city car that is the symbol of Fiat worldwide.

The Grande Panda platform costs half as much

As announced last May, the 500e will undergo its first reverse transition, from electric to hybrid. This decision, which was not included in the Group's initial plans, has become unavoidable in order to save the model and its production, whose disappointing commercial results were determined, according to Mr Tavares,"by the abrupt cancellation of incentives in Italy and Germany".

For Stellantis, what is certain is that building the current electric 500 at Mirafiori is not economically viable:

"I don't want to give too many figures that would go to the competition", stressed Tavares,"but the cost of the platform for the Citroën C3 (and therefore in the Fiat Grande Panda - Editor's note) is half the cost of the 500e".

Carlos Tavares welcomes Emmanuel Macron to the Paris Motor Show 2024

Target of 100,000 cars at Mirafiori

Hence the twofold intervention: the development of a hybrid variant (of the mild type similar to the Fiat Grande Panda, Jeep Avenger, etc.) and a technical evolution of the current 500e:

"With our Italian engineers", explains Mr Tavares,"we have identified a very innovative engineering idea that will considerably reduce total production costs. With a new battery and a new battery management system, the cost will be significantly reduced and we will adjust the price accordingly in order to sell more".

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How and how much is not yet known, but the director opened up about the combined impact on the Miriafiari plant taking into account the production of the 500 hybrid: between 80 and 100,000 more cars produced each year. It will be a race against time to stop the haemorrhage of sales, but also controversy, so much so that Tavares himself, at the House hearing, promised to bring forward the arrival of the car from the end of 2025 to 2026...

The Stellantis battery technology centre at Mirafiori

Detail of the current 500e on the assembly line

No other 'city car' planned

The discussion on Fiat's small car was an opportunity for Tavares to clarify that there are currently no plans for other so-called A-segment cars (city cars, to be precise): "To get around town, we use the Fiat Topolino, which I don't call a car, but a mobility tool". It's a different story when it comes to the STLA Small platform: "This platform will be used by Fiat very, very soon, starting with the Panda, and it will make a major contribution to the profitability and accessibility of Fiat products".

It's a different vision from that of the Renault group, whose number one Luca De Meo, again at the Paris Motor Show, defined city cars as the Columbus egg of the electric transition: "You don't need to have a Nobel Prize in physics", De Meo declared during a meeting with journalists, "to understand that to move an object that weighs one tonne, you need half the energy (whatever that may be) of an object that weighs two tonnes".