Fiat will add van version of New 500 small EV amid slow sales

MILAN -- Fiat will add a commercial van version of the New 500 full-electric small car, which has fallen short of the brand's sales expectations.

The van will have a cargo divider and no rear seating. It was mentioned in a presentation to suppliers in March as among vehicles to be launched this year by Fiat's parent Stellantis, but has not been previously announced. 

A Fiat spokesman confirmed that the commercial version would be built, and the company expects it to sell in low numbers.

Even though it will be a niche product, the van will help to boost sales of the New 500 range.

At the unveiling of the New 500 hatchback in March 2020, Fiat brand CEO Olivier François said 15,000 units were expected to be delivered by the end of 2020, with an eventual annual sales target of 80,000.

Italian unions said that 32,000 New 500s had been built since the start of production. They said the production cadence had been slowed since January and the number of shifts will be cut to one from two starting next week.

Partly because of the pandemic-induced market disruption, only 6,353 units of the New 500 were registered in 2020, according to figures from market researcher JATO Dynamics. JATO estimates that just more than 10,000 New 500s were in Europe from the start of sales last July until the end of February.

A Fiat spokesman said the brand had received 20,000 customer orders for the New 500 from the launch date through mid-April of this year.

A number of small cars are sold as commercial vans in Europe, although the degree of modification depends on country regulations. One direct full-electric competitor to the New 500 would be the Renault Zoe, which sold 1,599 units in France in 2020 in commercial versions, according to trade group CCFA, compared with 37,409 sold to private customers. 

Small electric delivery vans are expected to be increasingly popular in Europe, as more cities limit access to internal combustion engine vehicles and demand for online commerce grows. Brands including Renault, Peugeot, Citroen and Opel now sell their full range of vans in electric versions, mostly to large fleet customers such as utilities and delivery companies.

A commercial van version of the New 500 would be the fourth third variant of the body style, in addition to a the 3-door hatchback, a cabriolet and a third-door model called 3+1. 

Fully modified (cargo divider, window panels, deleted rear seat) versions of the Renault Zoe start at 28,140 pounds ($38,700) in the UK, but that is about 700 pounds more than private versions. In France, "Professional" versions of the Zoe start at 34,700 euros ($41,260) compared with 34,700 euros for private versions. However, local incentives and business tax regulations make such comparisons difficult.

Another potential competitor will be the Dacia Spring, an electric minicar built in China that will have a commercial van version in by the start of 2022, and will sell for well under 20,000 euros before incentives.

The New 500, which is marketed as a more-upscale vehicle than some competitors in the segment, has struggled to meet Fiat's sales targets.

New 500 production was 19,000 at Fiat's Mirafiori factory in 2020, according to the FIM CISL metalworkers' union, with an additional 13,000 built in the first quarter of this year.

The union said production cadence has been slowed from a peak of 400 a day last year to 210 units a day at the start of this year. Starting April 19, Fiat will move to a single shift, reducing New 500 output to below 200 units a day, the unions said. The company has cited difficulties in battery procurement, unions added.

The New 500 is not the only full-electric vehicle to face a slow start in 2021. The Renault Zoe sold 3,606 units in its home market of France in the first quarter, down 64 percent from the 10,151 sold in the same period of 2020, according to CCFA. 

Market researcher LMC Automotive suggested in a report on March 30 that Europe's full-electric market could be losing momentum. The report said about 100,000 full-electric vehicles were sold in January and February, just 9 percent of the volume expected to be needed to reach fleet emissions targets for 2021. 

One reason is that automakers emphasized electric-vehicle sales at the end of 2020 to meet emissions targets, LMC said. 

"It seems very clear that sales were pulled from early 2021 into late 2020 and this has depressed demand so far," the report said.