Stellantis could expand its line-up of sub-£15,000 affordable electric city cars beyond the forthcoming Citroën 2CV and Fiat Panda revivals – and the firm’s European chief is “95%” certain they will be offered in the UK with right-hand drive.
The industry powerhouse is developing a new ‘E-car’ platform for a line of native-electric city cars that can be built to the EU’s planned new M1E class for sub-4.2m-long, EU-built EVs.
The first two confirmed models, the 2CV and Panda, will both be built in Stellantis’s Pomigliano plant in Italy from 2028 onwards.
Emanuele Cappellano, Stellantis’s European chief, said that to meet the planned target price of €15,000 (£13,000) “we need to be focused on developing a platform that is native BEV, and we need to do that with with scale, and we need to do that with a supplier base that is supportive enough to reach a target cost that allows us to reach our price”.
Asked by Autocar if that meant more of Stellantis’s brands – which also include Peugeot and Vauxhall – could offer their own E-cars, Cappellano said: “Fiat for sure, Citroën for sure, other brands potentially yes.
“We want to start from the Pomigliano plant with at least two vehicles but there are several options under study in terms of [other] brands and production sites. We start with at least two models, the rest we discuss step by step.”
Cappellano said that Stellantis was still looking for firms to partner on developing the E-car platform with, saying: “We are working on developing this platform with or without collaboration, trying to leverage the expertise we’ve matured so far, also in partnering with other Chinese OEMs. For example, the time to market is something we are really interested to improve in this cycle of plan, along with the batteries and drive motor technology.”
The EU’s M1E rules will reward firms that manufacture them with ‘super credits’ that count will help them meet their EU fleet emissions targets, but there’s no word yet on whether the UK government would give firms selling such cars any extra support in meeting their zero-emission vehicle mandate targets.
That raises questions of the value of manufacturers offering them in the UK, especially with the extra investment that would be required to convert them for right-hand drive.
The new Renault Twingo will arrive late in RHD form, due to delays in signing off the extra investment, while some small city cars have previously not been offered in the UK at all.
