Fiat500Ev
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Fiat will lose $10,000 on every 500 EV it sells, still intends to bring it to US in 2012
Any new technology generally costs an arm, a leg, and a bit of your sanity to adopt early, but that's a luxury that the well settled auto market cannot afford. In light of its elastic economics, car makers looking to go electric have had to be extremely aggressive in cutting their own profits, an aggressiveness that's now been estimated by Fiat's CEO Sergio Marchionne to cost them as much as $10,000 per unit sold. Fiat's famed little car, the Cinquecento, is going to be hitting the US in a new EV configuration in 2012, in spite of the fact it'll be causing a ding to the company's bottom line. It's not actually clear whether Mr. Marchionne is factoring in research and development costs or whether he's talking purely of material costs, though Fiat's fate is hardly unique -- the Nissan Leaf isn't expected to generate a profit for a good couple of years yet. The Fiat 500 EV's likely price was indirectly revealed, too, by the company chief's assertion that it'll retail for about three times the cost of its gas-powered version. So about $45,000. Yikes!
Chrysler says all-electric Fiat 500 will carry Americans, American Touristers in 2012
Curvy, sumptuous concept and prototype electric vehicles are definitely easy on the eyes, but if you've been searching for something a touch more "real," fresh-out-of-bankruptcy Chrysler has one car that's not going back to the drawing board. Our compatriots over at Autoblog report that the all-electric Fiat 500 EV -- which saw a limited run of 100 in Europe and made a cameo at this year's Detroit Auto Show -- will actually be produced and sold in the US starting in 2012. Since the automaker's not talking specs, it's hard to say how it'll compare to a Volt or a Leaf, but history (peek the 'More Coverage' link down below) tells us the original electric Fiat 500 got up to 120 miles on a charge. We'd caution you not to get too worked up by that hot hatch action, though -- despite the fact that the Peapod made it briefly to market, this isn't the first time Chrysler's told us to expect a commercial vehicle we can charge. Here's hoping for better results this go 'round.
