Alexandre
On the occasion of Fiat's 125th anniversary, Olivier François, Managing Director of the Italian brand, shared his thoughts on the challenges facing the electric car market. In his view, the main obstacle to their adoption is price.
Indeed, at a time when the electric car market is suffering, with sales down at almost all automakers, the latter are gradually revising their sales targets. Carlos Tavares, Managing Director of Stellantis, has also admitted that the transition to electric cars would take longer than expected.
For Olivier François, the future of the automobile will undoubtedly be electric, particularly for small cars. However, he acknowledges that the high cost of electric vehicles remains a major obstacle for consumers. He remains optimistic, declaring that "the cost of electrics will come down".
To illustrate his point, Olivier François refers to two significant examples. In France, the resounding success of social leasingwhich provides access to an electric car for €100 a month, is a case in point. This offer, which opened on January 1, 2024, had to be suspended just six weeks later due to the explosion in demand: over 90,000 applications were registered for just 50,000 available files.
Another notable example comes fromItaly, where purchase incentives have been introduced in May 2024. Individuals earning less than €30,000 a year can now purchase a 23 kWh electric Fiat 500 for just €39 a month, after a €1,350 deposit and scrapping a Euro 2-class vehicle. The offer includes a €1,750 discount from Fiat and €11,000 in government incentives, for a vehicle with a list price of €29,950. At the end of the offer, the car can be bought back for €14,990. The initiative was an immediate successwith large numbers of orders booked in just a few hours.
Olivier François points out that even in Italy, a country traditionally attached to conventional engines, electric cars are sold when subsidies are available. For him, these examples show that price is the main barrier to the adoption of electric carsIt also shows that solutions exist to make these vehicles more accessible to the general public.
Olivier François' optimism about the future of electric vehicles is based on the conviction that vehicle costs will fall, making electric cars more affordable for a greater number of consumers. In the meantime, measures such as social leasing in France and purchase incentives in Italy point the way to overcoming this main obstacle.
Apart from the higher price of electric cars, there's another obstacle: the difficulty of recharging in many cities, and in many countries, including Italy. I'm all for driving electric, but if it's not a nightmare to recharge. And apart from freeway stations, it's often a bit tricky.
Not everyone has a house with a garage, and from personal experience this is the number 1 obstacle.
The electric car will never make a breakthrough in Italy, and not only in Italy, it will never make a breakthrough anywhere, surviving only on subsidies and a few corporate fleets. If Stellantis and especially Fiat persist in going all-electric, they'll go straight into the wall. Next door to me there's a BMW-Mini dealership, and one of the salesmen told me that 9 out of 10 sales are made with combustion engines!
At the same time, ecology is not always the primary concern of bmw customers.
He had to think hard to come up with that, and the price is even holding back the purchase of combustion-powered vehicles, because €40,000 / €50,000 isn't for everyone. As for electric vehicles, you have to admit that there are still a lot of people who want to drive a combustion engine.
Remember that a 15,000 km Zoe costs €8,000, and €6,000 for a Zoe with 50,000 km, for cars sold and guaranteed by professionals. For cars that require no maintenance and no trips to the pump, it's hard to say that price is a barrier. It's more a case of fear of the unknown, unless lobbies are doing their job?
The electric car is rubbish. Supposedly more ecological than the internal combustion engine. When in fact the production of all its batteries is more polluting.
Do you have a reliable source, or is this just a personal opinion?
Hello,
For a city car, the fiat 500e is much too expensive. We had a low-speed collision with a badly maintained manhole cover, the battery was damaged and the car was declared economically repairable. We've learned that the battery is worth €16,000 excluding
tax .
Where he goes wrong is that there are many other obstacles to mass adoption besides price: availability of charging stations, recharging time, and range that's far too short.
And with cheaper vehicles, the range will melt like snow in the sun, a range that is already very small compared to combustion engines! So as a second car, possibly, but certainly not as a main car!
And that it also provides a solution for all apartment dwellers: how will they be able to recharge their vehicles without a garage, when it's currently forbidden to pull a cable across the sidewalk. Apart from travelling to an expensive public charging point, there are no other solutions.
And what about major holiday departures? We'd virtually have to install hundreds of terminals at every service station during the major holiday departures in July and August. Totally unthinkable!
I'm not opposed to an electric car as a 2nd car. Since the presentation of the Alfa Romeo Junior Veloce, I've been thinking why not?
The only problem is that if I have a parking lot in my building, on the other hand, I'm dependent on the co-ownership for the installation of a bollard, and it's going to take ages for them to make up their minds. On the street, the bollards are sometimes free, sometimes occupied, and it's not easy.
When I want to rent a Fiat 500e that I rented 2 years ago, they're never available. And it's the same problem: you have to recharge it, as rental companies now require you to return it with at least 80 % of charge (whereas 2 years ago you could return it empty, free of charge). The practical problem is far from solved, and it's the main obstacle to the use or purchase of electric cars.
The ecology of electric cars is all talk: we're just moving pollution around. At the same time, governments are ruining themselves with subsidies. Lithium and cobalt are mined using child labor, and the extra weight of our cars means wear and tear on suspension and brakes, adding to pollution. And when China, the sole beneficiary of this madness, restricts exports of rare earths, we risk economic asphyxiation. Something to think about!
Let's not forget that "rare earths" are a misnomer, since they are not rare at all, and many countries produce them. If we're concerned about reducing the availability of resources, the closest and most serious is quite simply oil, without which we're not only faced with economic difficulties, but with the impossibility of satisfying our basic needs, such as eating. Dilemma: to walk or to survive?
As for the other arguments, it's now clearly established that the pressure on the environment is not only shifted but also reduced by a factor of 2 with electric vs. combustion cars. The production of any good pollutes, including potatoes and lettuce, the main thing is to know how much.
Another environmental benefit of electric cars is to reduce the excessive material appeal of cars. If every German teenager dreams of buying a bm to go round and round on the autobahn, we can hope that more efficient and less expensive electric cars will make the vroom-vroom obsolete.
I can't understand the aversion to elétriques. Internal combustion engines have been around for over 120 years! It's time to move on. Batteries are only at the beginning of their development. In the '30s, we had 12-cylinder 6-liter engines that produced 150hp. Tomorrow we'll have batteries capable of travelling 1000-2000 km without recharging. Their weight will also decrease.
And even today, ele cars are already outperforming combustion cars in terms of power, speed, comfort, agility and space. I have a Giulia in my garage, a magnificent car. Recently I got a Tesla Y. I'm sorry, but we're in another world. You have to test it before you judge it. This is the future, Tavares and Co. are making a mistake that will lead them to the end of their adventure.
What are you talking about?
All manufacturers now have an electric range in all segments, including Stellantis.
Unfortunately, they are forced to curb their development and continue producing thermics and/or hybrids to meet market demand.
Electricity will continue to grow, but not at the pace envisaged by politicians, who will probably have to revise the 2035 timetable:
He explained that on social networks, we're witnessing a veritable anti-EV disinformation campaign, with the same arguments over and over again, false but repeated so often that many end up believing them. The result is that, instead of seeing a rapid switchover for all the economic and ecological reasons, we've managed to distill fear and incomprehension, and practically freeze the process. The lobbies have worked well.
Indeed, between a Giulia and a Model Y, we're in two different worlds: on the one hand, a magnificent sedan that embodies the pleasure of driving, and on the other, a computerized minivan that drives itself.