Category Archives: News

Fiat is developing a new 500 Hybrid

At the end of 2023, Fiat announced that it was temporarily suspending production of its all-electric model 500e at the Mirafiori plant due to low demand, and the problems continued in 2024. Now, it seems that Stellantis has finally found a solution, and it could be a hybrid version of this model.

The analysis showed that the biggest reason for the drop in demand for the 500e is the price, so production at the Mirafiori factory is not economically profitable. Back in May, it was announced that the Fiat 500e would undergo its first reverse transition, which is necessary in the hope of saving the model and its production. Also, it should be pointed out that the high price of cars was also influenced by the sudden abolition of incentives in Italy and Germany.

It was decided to try to significantly reduce costs by developing a hybrid version and technical evolution of the current 500e, with a new battery and a new battery management system, in order to make the price of the car affordable to a larger number of customers.

The plan is the annual production of up to 100,000 units of the hybrid version, and whether this will have an effect remains to be seen, because the arrival of this version is announced in two years.

Source: Fiat

Hertz Car Rental is selling over 30,000 EVs

Hertz Car Rental announced that it is selling almost 30,000 electric vehicles due to increased losses. A few years ago, the rental company acquired a large number of electric vehicles, but in the end this experiment was not successful.

The company aims to sell a certain number of cars by the end of the year, including the Tesla and Polestar models. A number of vehicles will remain in the fleet to meet the needs of customers booking trips in electric cars. The reason for this decision is low earnings, and electric vehicles that are not in use quickly lose value.

Three years ago, the company ordered 100,000 units of the Tesla Model 3, which at the time seemed like a good business move. Customers liked the car, and the company only had to pay for simple interventions such as tire repair, windshield wiper fluid, etc. Luckily, all the vehicles were not even delivered, so the losses are smaller.

The biggest problems appeared when Tesla started cutting the prices of the vehicles. This forced Hertz to start thinking about selling, as the price of the vehicle they owned was higher than the price of a new car, causing them to quickly lose money.

To make matters worse, the analysis showed that Tesla cars are not as economical as the company thought. There were also transport problems caused by accidents, leading to high repair costs and long deliveries.

Hertz will continue selling EVs in 2025.

Source: Hertz Car Rental; Photo: EPA-EFE

Ford is reducing production at the Cologne plant

The European electric vehicle market has been unstable for a long time, so due to the drop in demand, some manufacturers are deciding to reduce production. One of them is Ford, which announced that it is reducing production at the Cologne plant in Germany.

Ford has invested $2 billion in the facility to prepare it for electric vehicle production, but a rapid decline in demand for electric vehicles is holding back production of the Explorer and Capri models. Both models use Volkswagen technology, as clones of the ID model, and do not give the expected results. Employees will have no choice but to work one week and take another week off until the Christmas holidays.

Back in September, the American manufacturer realized that the too fast shutdown of cars with internal combustion engines, on which the manufacturer built its image for many years, was a failure. That’s why he started strongly advocating the return of ICE cars.

Gunnar Herrmann, Member of the Supervisory Board, believes that Ford’s survival depends on ICE cars and in a statement to the German press, he was more than clear that the current production at the factory where he is responsible is too small to justify two-shift operations. He also stated that he advised Ford managers in the United States that the focus in Europe should remain on ICE cars, but Ford’s headquarters in the United States do not intend to reconsider this decision and save what can be saved.

Source: Reuters