The Fiat 500e continues to make headlines, especially after the production stop at the Stellantis Mirafiori plant until September 2024. The cause, obviously, is due to the low demand for the model, which recently made its debut in the United States as well. In recent weeks there had been talk of the possibility of fitting internal combustion engines on the Fiat 500e, which thanks to its platform allows for great versatility. This had also been confirmed by Carlos Tavares, but it seems that Olivier Francois, CEO of Fiat, does not agree.
Fiat 500e will never have a hybrid version, according to CEO Olivier Francois
The current Fiat 500 Hybrid, produced at the Stellantis plant in Tychy, Poland, will no longer be on sale from July due to new European regulations requiring the installation of mandatory safety devices. However, unlike what was done with the Fiat Pandina, Stellantis has no intention of updating this model. For this reason, it was thought to fit a hybrid engine to the 500e version, but Francois told Automotive News Europe that he does not intend to do so.
“Technically, the platform would allow for the use of a hybrid system, but we want to focus on electric. I don’t think we’ll launch a hybrid model based on the 500e,” the Fiat CEO said.
Francois plans to replace the outgoing Fiat 500 Hybrid with the new generation of Fiat Panda, which will be offered on the market in various hybrid and electric variants, and with the Fiat 600 Hybrid, coming with 100 and 136-horsepower hybrid versions. In recent weeks, Carlos Tavares had announced an investment of over 100 million euros for a new version of the Fiat 500e that will have a greater range than the current model but will cost significantly less. With this strategy, the aim is to achieve more sales. At the moment, the Fiat 500e is one of the best-selling electric models in France.