The price of electric cars will drop as the cost of batteries falls in the coming years, says Fiat and DS CEO Olivier Francois. The Fiat chief also believes governments could do more with incentives until then to boost the take up of EVs.
Francois, who is also Chief Marketing Officer of the wider Stellantis Group, reckons we’ll see a step change in battery prices as soon as 2027 with some batteries going down in price by as much as €5,000 (£4,185).
Speaking to The Independent at the launch of the new Fiat Grande Panda – which at £20,975 is one of the UK’s cheapest electric cars – Francois said “at some point we will have better costs on the batteries. It’s supposed to come down drastically in 2027. It’s not just for us, it’s technology that is coming and that will help.”
“What is a pity is that the government incentives should have created a bridge until then. Now we have a bump – there are no government incentives and still the request to sell a lot of EVs because of CO2 targets.”
When pushed on how much cheaper batteries are likely to become in a few years’ time, Francois said, “If I had to guess, and it’s my educated guess, it would probably be €5,000. And they will probably go down [in steps] rather than a curve. We want the steps to be as big as possible.”
Francois was speaking as the new version of the iconic 80s Panda, the Grande Panda, was being launched at Fiat’s base in Turin. The Grande Panda will go on sale in April with first deliveries in June and will be available as a mild hybrid petrol car as well as an EV.
The electric Grande Panda at £20,975 undercuts the new Citroen e-C3, with which it shares its 44kWh battery and 199-mile range, by £1,195. New, cheaper batteries could bring those prices down considerably, removing what Francois says is still one of the biggest barriers to EV ownership: price.
Francois also revealed that Fiat is working on a replacement for the smaller Panda model that remains on sale for the time being. The new, cheaper baby Panda will follow the Grande Panda with both petrol and electric power. It’ll be based on the platform used for the Fiat 500, which was originally launched as an electric car only but is being re-engineered for petrol hybrid power, too.
Before we see the new small Panda, an even larger model than the Fiat Grande Panda is expected to launch next year, again with electric and hybrid power, although it may not take the Panda name.
