REPORT: Fiat and Chrysler working together on electric car
While visiting Fiat's gearbox plant in Verrone, Italy the other day, Chrysler board member Alfredo Altavilla let slip that the Italian giant and its newly-acquired Detroit automaker are working together to build an electric car. Chrysler hasn't been talking up its ENVI electric vehicle skunkworks of late and, although they have said they still plan on producing the Dodge Circuit, the silence has served to create speculation.
The statement, which wasn't so much of a bean-spilling as it was a bean-seepage (wow, does that sound unappetizing), was the first word from the company about its electrification plans since sometime last June. Things will be made more clear on November 4, when Fiat/Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne will present an updated version of Chrysler's business plans. We imagine that any new electric vehicle this Italian-American venture spawns will be somewhat smaller and more realistic than some of those proposed last year. While we'd love to see a Fiat 500EV come out of this, let us know in the comments what kind of EV you'd like to see from the pair.
[Source: Wall Street Journal]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
David Mustoe 10:34AM (10/11/2009)
They need to produce another Kcar or Caravan, a peoples car. We don't need another "Pretty boy" car. They need to produce an electric for under $18,000. And of course it can be done. They need to go back to basic transportation.
It happened before when the VW bug swept across America.
David Mustoe
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josh 10:42AM (10/11/2009)
I think they'd do well with an EV 500 but personally I'd rather have a EREV or EV Volvo C30. Come 2012 there's actually going to be a fair amount of choice. Exciting =)...
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Mark Kiernan 11:48AM (10/11/2009)
Fiat (Group) seem to be the only European automaker who hasn't jumped in to EVs (yet). I would love to see them have an EV drive-train on each of there models from the Panda to the 500 to the Corona.
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andrichrose 2:34PM (10/11/2009)
Mark ,
Fiat already have an electric drivetrain which they have
developed along with Mes Dea of Stabilo Switzerland , and they
have been producing electric Pandas for three years now in limited
production in near secrecy in the old ATEA factory in Bardello , Varese ,
Italy .
I think maybe their reluctance to sell these cars on the open
market comes from their "complex" relationship with ENI !
There is also a version of the 500 which uses lithium cells being
manufactured by Micro-Vett in Bologna , I did indeed drive this car
last march in Monaco and very impressive it was too .
here is a link to the video of the test drive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcG8W57YuMk
ziv 11:59AM (10/11/2009)
I think the first BEV's will probably have to be fairly expensive, or their range will be abysmally short. Batteries cost between $400 and $800 a kWh and you don't want to use all of your capacity or the battery won't last, so if you figure a 33% reserve and accept that if drivers use it to capacity your pack won't last long. Also the pack management and the electric intent power steering, and hvac will all cost more than on a traditional ICE since they are built in small numbers so far. Figure 5 miles per useable kWh, so you are looking at a pack of about 33 kWh to get 100 miles of AER, which is probably a bare minimum if you don't have an ER-EV to back up your battery. So 33 * 400 = $13,200 just for the batteries, not the pack or the BEV intent parts. And you still have a car that has a total range similar to what my RAV4 does when my gas is low light comes on. If you fast charge too frequently the pack life will be even shorter. If you have a big enough pack that you don't need to fast charge the batteries alone will cost $20,000.
I know that prices are coming down, but in the meantime, no one in the world can build an inexpensive battery electric car that will last 10 years. This isn't rocket science, it is tougher than that.
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Mark Kiernan 12:10PM (10/11/2009)
I did some quick calculations and worked out that if I paid 10k more for an EV over an ICE I would recover the costs in 5 years. I would plan to drive the same EV for about 10 years so I would be covered. This would be on cost along but ecological arguments would win out also, but I can't say money is no object.
ziv 12:34PM (10/11/2009)
Hi Mark, I did the same calculation, and since I drive only 12,500 miles a year usually, my payback per year would be around $1400 if I got the Volt next year. It wouldn't pay for itself, for me, for quite a while, but the satisfaction of not buying foreign oil would make the deal work for me. I would rather have an all electric BEV than an ER-EV, if I could refuel it quickly and it didn't cost anymore, or not much more than an ER-EV. I hope that day comes soon, but I think that it might be 2025 before BEV's will make more sense than an ER-EV, but who knows? The market, and drivers like us will decide what becomes the car type of choice. All I know is that I hope that battery prices keep falling and that the electric intent parts fall even faster.
ForgedInternals 12:09PM (10/11/2009)
Can't say I blame Fiat for hesitating here. Their problems usually tend to be of the electrical variety so perhaps they feel an Electric Fiat would tank in sales and perceptions.
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wincros 1:51PM (10/11/2009)
If it is of the MINI variety with the 500 backseat and trunk replaced with a giant battery box, never mind. Can't imagine FIAT not doing a special design for BEV.
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Mark Kiernan 5:12AM (10/12/2009)
@ziv
Well said. Also I think when people say that "ah but people won't pay more to have an EV" this is a somewhat of a useless argument. Consider all the people who are willing to pay extra for something that does not improve the car such as leather seats, sun roof, sound system, electric seats etc.
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