The affordable Fiat Panda EV is likely to make life difficult for Chinese brands
New Chinese car brands are flooding the global car market with electric cars. Many European electric vehicle manufacturers cannot compete with the often low prices of Chinese brands. An electric Fiat Panda will hit the market next year, competing with Chinese automakers.
It does this armed with a less is moreSword, said CEO Olivier Francois in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. So you don’t have to expect a lot of luxury from an electric car.
Fiat Panda EV
Francois said Fiat must and will find a solution that will cause difficulties for Chinese automakers. This solution will come next year in the form of the electric Fiat Panda (or perhaps Punto) and is a production version of the Concept Centoventi that the brand showed us back in 2019. The electric car must cost less than the competition.
However, the Chinese EV competition in the B segment is not yet very strong. The Chinese threat that many traditional car manufacturers feel is primarily concerned with the relationship between price and specifications. For example, you can get a larger BYD Dolphin for €29,990 and an MG 4 for just over 32 grand. The latter brand will soon also bring a smaller (and therefore even cheaper) electric car onto the market.
Competition, especially from a European perspective
In addition, much of the competition for electric vehicles will also come from European sources. Think of the Volkswagen ID.2 launching in 2025, the Renault 5 launching next year and the Citroën e-C3 launching this month.
The Fiat Panda EV will likely be closely related to the latter model. Fiat is pulling from the same grab bag as the other Stellantis brands and the electric B-segmenter will be on the eCMP platform or the new STLA Small platform.
Electric car for under 25,000 euros
In any case, it should be a very affordable electric model. Volkswagen and Citroën had previously promised that the ID.2 and e-C3 would cost less than 25,000 euros. The electric Fiat Panda is supposed to go into hiding there. If successful, the electric vehicle will certainly compete with emerging Chinese brands.