Fiat 500EV to Join Ranks of Electric Cars in the U.S.

In the next few years, American consumers will have a full menu of small battery electric vehicles to choose from including the Ford Focus EV, Nissan Leaf, REVA NXG, THINK City, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, BMW MINI E, and maybe a few others. The latest? Chrysler Group plans to engineer and produce a pure electric vehicle using the Fiat 500 platform.

Chrysler aims to have the 500EV in production in 2012 as a 2013 model. The 500EVs production location hasn’t been announced. However, the gasoline powered Fiat 500 that goes on sale in the North American market in late 2010 will be produced at a Chrysler plant in Mexico, possibly at Toluca where the PT Cruiser is built. Chrysler says that all powertrain engineering and vehicle development will occur at Chrysler Group headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

The Fiat 500EV made its debut in concept form at the 2010 North American International Auto Show. It was the product of the new alliance between the Chrysler and Fiat Groups. The Chrysler Group's five-year plan includes a progressive vehicle electrification strategy even though it has shuttered its more ambitious ENVI electric vehicle program, which included the Dodge Circuit electric sports car.

Details are still sketchy, but like its competitors the 500 EV has three main systems: a high power electric powertrain module, advance lithium ion batteries, and an EV control unit to manage power flow. Reportedly, the concept at the 2010 NAIAS had a range of 100 miles between charges. Prices have not been announced, but Fiat-Chrysler sources have mentioned a likely cost of just over $30,000. Like the concept version, the production 500EV will probably be a two-seater because batteries take up so much space in such a small car. Thus, the 500EV’s closest competitor would be BMW’s MINI E, also a two-seater.

This isn’t the only electric-focused activity at the Chrysler Group. It has been selected for a U.S. Department of Energy grant of up to $48 million to build a total of 140 Ram plug-in hybrid vehicles, which will be fielded in a three-year demonstration project in various geographic and climatic locations across the country. The grant is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act DOE Vehicle Electrification program, also known as the Stimulus plan.

The Ram PHEV features Chrysler Group's 5.7-liter HEMI V-8 with a two mode hybrid transmission developed in conjunction with GM and BMW. It has an all-electric range of up to 20 miles on its 12 kWh Electrovaya lithium ion battery. An overall fuel economy improvement of more than 65 percent is expected.

Chrysler, along with 21 partners across the U.S. including utility companies, government agencies, and universities, will independently test the Ram PHEVs. The goal is to understand and test the capability of PHEV systems under a variety of real-world conditions and to gauge customer acceptance. The latter question has probably been answered since Chrysler just cancelled the planned 2011 introduction of its hybrid Ram pickup, citing the lack of a market. Incidentally, GM’s Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra hybrid pickups have not been hot sellers, mainly because of their premium price for hybridization.