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EV

2026 Nio Firefly EV

Chinese multinational automobile manufacturer Nio has unveiled its new car, the Firefly. It is an all-electric city hatchback designed by former BMW and Ford designer Kris Tomasson.

Nio’s plan is to produce small electric cars that are affordable to a wider range of users, as shown by its price of $20,400. It will officially hit the market in April 2025, and the order book is open. It will also arrive in Europe at the beginning of next year and is expected to cost around 30,000 euros.

At first glance, the three-piece round LED headlights, as well as the taillights, attract the most attention, while some parts such as the glass, black roof and pillars are reminiscent of Honda cars. The size of the car is not known, but everything indicates that its main rivals could be models like Fiat Grande Panda, BYD Dolphin or Renault 5.

Firefly is designed to achieve five stars in C-NCAP and Euro-NCAP tests, which is made possible by the use of high-strength steel and aluminum, which make up 83.4 percent of the body structure, as well as double anti-collision beams in the front doors. The car has nine airbags as standard, as well as the best torsional stiffness in its segment (37,700 Nm).

Photos of the interior have not yet been released, but spy photos reveal a minimalistic dashboard, digital instrument panel and a touchscreen infotainment system, similar to that found in Tesla cars. What is known for now is that the car offers a lot of luggage space, which could please families as well as singles who travel with a lot of bags. The front luggage compartment has a volume of 92 litres, which is more than most electric models offer, while the rear luggage compartment offers an additional 1250 litres, when the rear seats are folded down.

When it comes to the powertrain, Nio has yet to release technical details, so more will be known after the car hits the market next year.

Source: Nio

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2026 Nio Firefly EV
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Stellantis is stopping production of the Fiat 500e at the Mirafiori plant

At the end of 2023, Fiat announced the temporary halt of production of the all-electric 500e at the Mirafiori plant due to low demand, and the same problems continued in 2024. According to the latest information, Stellantis announced that it would suspend operations from December 2, 2024 to January 5, 2025.

Stellantis confirmed that production at the Turin plant will be temporarily halted due to the decline in sales of electric cars in several European markets. This means that this decision affects not only the Fiat 500e but also Maserati cars, which are also experiencing poor demand in the US and China.

The company’s management is trying to find a way out of this situation, and Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares blames bad marketing for the poor sales results. The company is turning to selling the new Fiat 500 powered by a consumption engine, and the plan is to offer a hybrid version of the Fiat 500 from 2026.

The first generation Fiat 500 Hybrid will be produced in Poland, with an annual production plan of up to 100,000 units.

Source: Stellantis

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Abarth will be an all-electric brand

“Abarth is officially giving up the internal combustion engine,” said Gaetano Thorel, head of Fiat and Abarth in Europe. This means that after 75 years, the Italian carmaker will become an all-electric brand.

This is no surprise as Abarth started phasing out its models with combustion engines a year ago and replacing them with all-electric ones, and in 2023 we saw the introduction of the first all-electric models based on the Fiat 500 e and Fiat 600 e. It seems that the company wants to take advantage of the growing popularity of small city cars.

Cars with combustion engines have become expensive to maintain, so Abarth wants to focus on simpler options, which means rejecting hybrid models as well.

In an interview with Autocar, Thorel said: “Is it fair if we can offer customers an electric hot hatch that behaves in the same way, offers the same level of enjoyment and equivalent performance? All at the same price? I think it’s better to offer electric cars.”

He also mentioned another piece of information that is not in favor of the users of cars with a combustion engine: “If you produce a hot hatch with a combustion engine that emits 180 g/km and you are in Italy, every year you have to pay between 1,000 and 2,000 euros in road tax.”

It seems that Abarth has no intention of producing its own models in the future either, because they want to stay true to the original idea of ​​their founder Carlo Abarth, who focused on reworking existing models into powerful sports cars.

Source: Autocar