TURIN – Stellantis will invest €100 million ($107 million) to build a new battery pack for the Fiat 500e minicar that will increase range and lower costs, CEO Carlos Tavares said.
The first cars to use the new pack will start production in 18 to 24 months, Tavares said on April 10 at an event here.
Stellantis did not detail the technology in the new pack or say what the range gains could be. The 500e now has a lithium-ion pack in two sizes, 24 or 42 kilowatt-hours, with ranges of 190 or 320 km, respectively, on the WLTP test cycle.
"Our engineers have found a very smart solution to significantly increase range of the 500e while significantly reducing the cost," Tavares said.
According to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, the battery will be developed in China but assembled in Italy. That would mean more work at Stellantis’ Mirafiori factory in Turin, where the car's current battery pack arrives fully assembled from South Korea.
The new battery pack will require an extensive rework of the central underbody, Tavares said. The investment will also include modifications to the production line at Mirafiori.
The new, lower-cost pack is also expected to boost sales of the 500e, which have slumped in recent months after a strong launch in 2020.
Production peaked in 2022 at 77,500, according to the FIM CISL union. Output was down slightly last year to 77,260, but weak demand forced a deep production cut in the first quarter of 2024 (-51 percent, to 11,360). One production shift has been cut and workers have been temporarily laid off.
The 500e starts at about €30,000 in Italy before incentives. It will be facing competition from a number of low-cost EVs that are about to be launched in Europe, including the Citroen C3 from Stellantis, which starts at €23,900 before incentives.
Tavares cited the C3 as an example of an EV that has reached price parity with cars with internal combustion engines, a condition he said is necessary for mass adoption of the technology.
Stellantis “has to do something” to cut the price of the 500e and increase sales, he said. Fiat has set a target of 100,000 sales for the car.
Tavares said that EV incentives promised by the Italian government but not yet available to customers would help increase sales of the 500e in its home market by up to 20,000 units a year. Last year, 4,749 units were sold in Italy out of a European total of 62,643.
The 500e will also be exported to the U.S. this year. Deliveries started in the first quarter, with 41 units sold through March.
Increasing the 500e’s sales will also help Stellantis meet tougher 2025 CO2 fleet emission targets in Europe, Tavares said. “Next year every EU carmaker will have to double its EV sales share to be compliant with the new targets,” he said.
According to a recent report by green group Transport & Environment, Stellantis is well placed to reach the 2025 targets, which are 15 percent below the last step-down in 2020-21. Volvo is already compliant, T&E said, and Stellantis is only 5 grams/km behind the target, beaten only by Kia among noncompliant automakers.
