Fiat is the latest carmaker to say it’s going all-electric

That’s right: it’s Fiat’s turn to say it’s going all-electric, just in time for popular markets like the UK to ban the sale of non-electrified cars. 

In an emotional-sounding statement, Fiat’s boss Olivier François said: “The decision to launch the new 500 – electric and electric alone – was actually taken before Covid-19. Even then, we were already aware that the world could not take any more ‘compromises’.” 

“In fact, lockdown was only the latest of the warnings we have received. At that time, we witnessed situations that would have been unimaginable until then, for example wild animals roaming the cities, proving nature was taking back what was rightfully hers. 

“We were reminded of the urgency of taking action, of doing something for the planet Earth.”

And that means more than just selling electric city cars and making sure the next generation of 500X and Panda go battery-powered. Fiat’s going to build a garden on its most famous landmark. 

“We will see the conversion of the legendary track on the roof of the former Lingotto factory in Turin into the largest hanging gardens in Europe, hosting over 28,000 plants.” Fiat says the plan to reimagine the iconic banked track is part of a sustainable project to revitalise the city of Turin. 

Just as the original Fiat 500 was the small, cheap car that basically put Italy on wheels in the late 1950s, Fiat’s latest boss wants Fiat to spearhead electric cars that are affordable by the many, not the few, saying “it is [Fiat’s] duty to bring to market electric cars that cost no more than those with an internal combustion engine, as soon as we can, in line with the falling costs of batteries.”

Click on these blue words to read our review of the new all-electric Fiat 500.