The ICE version of the Fiat 500 will temporarily put on hold
- The new generation of the Fiat 500 was born in 2007, exactly fifty years after the first generation in 1957. This internal combustion-engine (ICE) model, produced in Tichy, Poland, reached 200,000 units by 2008, but the following years were less successful, with sales volume between 150,000 and 190,000 units per year until 2019. The year 2020 sees the launch of the battery electric version, slightly different in terms of exterior design, which is produced at Fiat's Mirafiori plant in Italy.
- The sales development of the battery electric version (up to 73,000 units produced in 2023) had a natural consequence on the thermal Fiat 500, with sales falling from 167,000 units in 2019 to 129,000 in 2020 and 119,000 in 2023. However, the total for both versions remains decent, with 192,000 units in 2023, almost as many as the production peak reached in 2008.
- Despite this decent score, the Stellantis Group, owner of the Fiat brand since 2021, has decided to end the career of the current Fiat 500 ICE, produced in Poland, in the coming weeks.
- That leaves the battery electric version produced at Mirafiori (using NMC battery until 2025), which should have replaced the ICE Fiat 500 but failed to do so, no doubt because the price was too high. As BEV sales are not progressing as expected, the Stellantis group has scheduled the launch of a new ICE version of the Fiat 500 but this time, based on the electric version body and produced at Mirafiori.