Yahoo Autos The Morning Shift: Fiat Is About To Give It One More Try In The U.S.
Good morning! It’s Monday, June 5, 2023 and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. Here are the important stories you need to know.
1st Gear: The Return Of The 500
Remember the fanfare to which Fiat introduced the last 500 to the States? For but one precious, fleeting moment, an automaker actively tried to market a small car to Americans with intent to its design. You got the sense that just maybe this country didn’t hate small cars; we merely needed somebody to put in the effort again. Those hopes were quickly dashed, but Stellantis has been loath to give up on the 500 on these shores. Because it’s about to come back — this time, as an EV only. Automotive News dove into Fiat North America’s efforts to reinvent itself around the new 500e this week:
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The stage is set for Aamir Ahmed, a former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles marketer appointed to head Fiat’s North American operations last month. Ahmed left FCA in 2017 to work for Harman International and Amazon. Ahmed succeeds Larry Dominique, who had been leading Fiat in addition to his role as senior vice president for Alfa Romeo in North America.
There’s a tough job ahead.
Although the brand has been a major player globally, it hasn’t been able to find its footing in the U.S. market, where it sells only the 500X. Fiat sold just 138 vehicles in the first quarter of 2023.
Despite Fiat’s rocky track record since its 2011 return to the U.S., industry observers say the 500e could bring viability to the brand as automakers move aggressively toward electrification. The 500e, according to Fiat CEO Olivier Francois, is coming back to the U.S. to capitalize on the industry’s EV revolution.
138 cars in three months. Yikes. A competent, affordable EV with any marketing at all should smash that. Even Nissan moved 2,300 Leafs in the first quarter of this year. While the last 500e sold Stateside was very clearly a compliance car with a pitiful 84-mile range, the new one has a WLTP range of 200 miles. In EPA numbers, the new one should travel for about double its predecessor’s distance on a charge. Not quite the Bolt, but not awful.
Today, the European version of the 500e, called the New 500, is among that continent’s top-selling EVs.
“If they could come to market with something very small and electric and [with] better range, that’s the kind of vehicle that can turn some heads,” Ivan Drury, director of insights for Edmunds, told Automotive News. “Right now, the average ATP for an EV is $60K, and while [EVs are] pulling in a lot of buyers and a lot of money, we know there’s people that don’t want to spend that. They’re not looking to buy a used one, either.”
We’ll see what happens. With the Bolt gone, the entry-level EV space is about to get considerably worse but also more competitive for everyone else. I’d love to see the 500 finally flourish and really claim that domain for itself, but Stellantis can’t just throw the little guy out there. It has to come out swinging this time.
2nd Gear: Volvo On The Up
Volvo’s sales increased 31 percent in May of 2023 versus the same month last year, good for 60,398 cars. Courtesy Reuters:
The 31% rise comes after a strained 2022, when the company, like other automakers, felt the effects of persistent COVID-lockdowns in China, chip shortages and other supply constraints that hampered production.
As Volvo, majority-owned by China’s Geely, has begun recovering from 2022's setbacks, sales figures have consistently been up for the past few months.
Still, automakers’ worries are not yet over as high costs linger. That forced the company recently to commence a cost-slashing effort that has seen 1,300 jobs being cut.
It also announced in May that production of its fully electric SUV was delayed until 2024.
Europe and China posted the biggest gains, at 40 and 49 percent respectively. In the U.S., Volvo only moved 15 percent more vehicles. The thing is, it’s not like Volvo is lacking for American-friendly product. In fact, its lineup became nearly all-SUV so slowly, the world barely noticed.
3rd Gear: VW Wants China Out Of Its EV Supply Chain
Every manufacturer that primarily does business in North America and Europe is moving to focus its EV and battery production in the West, to capitalize on government incentives. Volkswagen’s new energy subsidiary PowerCo (really) is leading the company’s efforts to make that happen. From The Wall Street Journal:
[VW board member and technology chief Thomas] Schmall and PowerCo chief Frank Blome have traveled the world to secure resources. They have met government officials and mining operators from Canada, South America, Indonesia and Australia. There are large deposits of lithium in South America, where Chile in April said it would nationalize the country’s lithium industry to maintain control of the resource. Mexico has also taken steps to nationalize lithium deposits.
Schmall said VW has spoken to a number of lithium suppliers in South America.
One of the lithium producers that VW has been speaking to, according to people familiar with the matter, is Sigma Lithium, a Nasdaq-listed Canadian mining company with operations in Brazil that has begun mining hard rock lithium, which experts say is less environmentally damaging than other methods of extraction.
In March, PowerCo said it would build its biggest planned battery factory to date in St. Thomas, Ontario, which is near deposits of lithium, nickel and cobalt. Schmall said another factor for picking the site was a trade agreement between the EU and Canada that would enable VW to export battery materials or cells from Canada to Europe in a pinch.
