Stellantis E-cars will be built at Italy’s Pomigliano plant, which currently builds Fiat Panda
Company launches new ‘e-car’ project to develop and build small, affordable EVs for Europe
Stellantis has confirmed plans to begin production of a new line of “small and affordable” electric city cars in Italy from 2028.
The company has announced the launch of a new programme develop A-segment EVs for the European market, in accordance with the European Commission’s new ‘e-car’ framework – which aims to make the production of such vehicles more viable for car manufacturers.
Working similarly to Japan’s kei car rules, the Commission’s new E-car framework will create a new category for sub-4.2m, European-built EVs dubbed ‘M1E’, which will be eligible for ‘super-credits’ against manufacturers’ CO2 targets in the region.
Precise requirements for the M1E category have yet to be officially detailed, but the Commission previously said it aimed to freeze regulation in the class for 10 years to give car makers certainty and limit the amount of ongoing investment needed.
Confirming its plans to participate in the category today, Stellantis called it a “high potential segment” that will play “a vital role in supporting the wider adoption of full-electric vehicles for convenient, everyday, city-centric mobility”.
Stellantis said: “The E-car is a small, innovative, affordable and fully electric vehicle that is being developed in the true tradition of European ‘people’s mobility’ – addressing the unprecedented contraction of the small affordable car segment in Europe in recent years.”
Company boss Antonio Filosa last week cited the lack of affordable cars on the market today as “one of the major causes of the automotive industry in Europe – just because cars below €15,000 don’t exist”.
Speaking at the Financial Times Future of the Car Summit in London, he said: “Affordability is possible, the project of E-Car is possible […] and there is an acknowledgement that electric small cars pollute less, so they deserve special framework.”
The cars are expected to be begin production in 2028 at Stellantis’s Pomigliano plant in the south of Italy, which currently produces the Fiat Panda – now no longer on sale in the UK, having been replaced by the Grande Panda – and the Alfa Romeo Tonale.
The company says it chose the factory – capable of building nearly 300,000 cars per year currently – on the basis of the “potential of significant production volumes” with the new E-Car programme.
It also highlights the site’s “long history of producing some of Europe’s most iconic and affordable cars, including the much-loved Fiat Panda” – an EV revival of which is tipped to be one of the company’s new M1E models, alongside a similarly conceived Citroën.
Autocar previously reported that Fiat was planning to launch a new entry-level Panda model – to sit underneath the high-riding Grande Panda – riding on the ‘STLA City’ platform that underpins the Fiat 500, and built at Pomigliano.
Brand boss Olivier François told Autocar he expected “the design of the replacement Panda to be a bit closer to the original Panda of the ’80s”, and described it as the ‘baby bear’ to the Grande Panda’s ‘Mama Bear’.
Citroën is also working on its own plans for a spiritual revival of a legendary ‘people’s car’ for the new M1E class, channeling the ethos of the 2CV for a new entry-level EV to sit underneath the C3.
Speaking to Autocar recently, Citroën boss Xavier Chardon echoed Filosa’s sentiment that the European car market was declining because of the erosion of the cheap car segment, and pledged to give “buying power” back to motorists in the region – just as the 2CV did in France in the wake of the Second World War.
“The European market is the only one that has not recovered after Covid,” Chardon said. “The United States is back, China is back, even South America is back – and we are still missing three million people buying new cars each year in Europe. And I would say 60% of that is driven by the simple fact that you don’t have any cars any more below €15,000 or £15,000.
“It’s quite a sad story that the average age of cars has increased by more than two years in the last five years. We are above 12 years now in average in Europe. So that’s why you need to motivate people to buy new cars, and to be affordable.”
Stellantis has not yet said, however, whether the mooted Fiat and Citroën models are among the M1E models it will build at Pomigliano, with Filosa saying only that the company plans to “answer the call” for more affordable cars with “exciting new models for multiple brands”.
This latest news is the latest in a string of high-profile Stellantis announcements made in the run up to its annual investor day presentation this Thursday, during which bosses will give details on the company’s future strategy.
Details of the E-Car programme are expected to feature, but one main focus is expected to be on the increasing importance of Stellantis’s partnerships with other car makers – which Filosa touted last week as a central pillar of the brand’s plans going forward – in all key regions.
Stellantis recently expanded its partnership with Leapmotor to include the development of a new Vauxhall SUV based the Chinese firm’s EV platform, and last week announced a new deal with Dongfeng to produce a pair of new Jeeps and a pair of Peugeots at the company’s Wuhan plant in China, for local and global sale.
