While flagging demand was cited as the reason, sales of the compact EV actually outpace other Stellantis models in Canada
- Fiat is halting production of its electric 500e compact for longer than initially planned
- After shutting down mid-September, assembly is now intended to restart November 1
- Stellantis delivered 381 examples of the EV last quarter in Canada—more than some Jeeps
The facility where the compact car is built, known as the Mirafiori plant in Turin, Italy, was slacked to a single eight-hour schedule instead of running two shifts as it had been in the past. Fiat says the adjustment to production is in response to challenging conditions encountered by EV-makers in many markets, but primarily Europe.
Most gearheads know that governments around the globe have put forth plans to halt the sale of new internal-combustion vehicles in the next decade, a decree which saw numerous car companies put many of their eggs in that all-electric basket, only to find themselves staring down the barrel of flagging demand once early adopters got their EV fill. Everyone else, it turns out, needs a mite more convincing.
“The ban must be changed,” raged Italian energy minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin earlier this year when talking about the EV mandates, before going on to call the ban “absurd” and one being dictated by an “ideological vision.”
Stellantis chief Carlos Tavares will address an Italian parliamentary committee next week on the prospects for the carmaker’s production in Italy — on the same day it was supposed-to-but-now-will-not restart 500e production. It’s like the universe is trying to tell them something.
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