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That journalist grieves for discontinued Multipla, which is the ugliest car ever. Also push back to the electric cars back then was a good strategy. Fiat was a

That journalist grieves for discontinued Multipla, which is the ugliest car ever. Also push back to the electric cars back then was a good strategy. Fiat was always a cheap cars brand, none will go and buy expensive electric Fiat. Looks like FT is right about him, his business decisions were right.

_giorgio_ 3y ago
He made a lot of mistakes, he was not a car guy. Look at cheap electric chinese cars. Tech is old and perfect for Italy. He simply didn't understand the technology. He was a backward guy who only knew merges and finance. If you run a car company, you need to understand the product. You can't survive long without that.
- ponector 3y ago
  Chinese electric cars are cheap because they are subsidized. You should really compare with other European car manufacturers. I'm not a fan of Fiat, but if they did huge investments into electric 10+ years ago that possibly could bankrupt the company. Market is not ready even now for going all electric.
  - willcipriano 3y ago
    > Chinese electric cars are cheap because they are subsidized. So are cars in the US. Why are they so expensive here?
- margorczynski 3y ago
  From what I'm seeing the EV sales (or the lack of thereof) are a drain for all the other companies like BMW, Ford, Mercedes, etc. so not sure how having an EV would help them out?
rsynnott 3y ago
The second-gen Multipla was a lot more normal-looking than the original. > Fiat was always a cheap cars brand, none will go and buy expensive electric Fiat. In Ireland, the Fiat 500e is 24k EUR; I'm pretty sure it's their second-cheapest car, after the ordinary Fiat 500, which is about 20k. Anecdotally, I see a good few Fiat 500es around; it seems to be one of the more popular small (A-segment) electric cars. I suspect that had an earlier version existed 10 years ago, it would've done pretty well in a market then dominated by the Nissan Leaf.
- uxp100 3y ago
  An earlier version did exist 10 years ago.
  - rsynnott 3y ago
    ... Huh. So it did. Don't remember seeing any; it was mostly Leafs (Leaves?) back then. Maybe they never did a rhd version or something. EDIT: Ah, okay, it wasn't a real production car: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_500_(2007)#Availability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_500_(2007)#Availability - only sold in two US states and not at all in Europe.

_giorgio_ 3y ago

He made a lot of mistakes, he was not a car guy. Look at cheap electric chinese cars. Tech is old and perfect for Italy. He simply didn't understand the technology. He was a backward guy who only knew merges and finance. If you run a car company, you need to understand the product. You can't survive long without that.

ponector 3y ago
Chinese electric cars are cheap because they are subsidized. You should really compare with other European car manufacturers. I'm not a fan of Fiat, but if they did huge investments into electric 10+ years ago that possibly could bankrupt the company. Market is not ready even now for going all electric.
- willcipriano 3y ago
  > Chinese electric cars are cheap because they are subsidized. So are cars in the US. Why are they so expensive here?
margorczynski 3y ago
From what I'm seeing the EV sales (or the lack of thereof) are a drain for all the other companies like BMW, Ford, Mercedes, etc. so not sure how having an EV would help them out?

rsynnott 3y ago

The second-gen Multipla was a lot more normal-looking than the original. > Fiat was always a cheap cars brand, none will go and buy expensive electric Fiat. In Ireland, the Fiat 500e is 24k EUR; I'm pretty sure it's their second-cheapest car, after the ordinary Fiat 500, which is about 20k. Anecdotally, I see a good few Fiat 500es around; it seems to be one of the more popular small (A-segment) electric cars. I suspect that had an earlier version existed 10 years ago, it would've done pretty well in a market then dominated by the Nissan Leaf.

uxp100 3y ago
An earlier version did exist 10 years ago.
- rsynnott 3y ago
  ... Huh. So it did. Don't remember seeing any; it was mostly Leafs (Leaves?) back then. Maybe they never did a rhd version or something. EDIT: Ah, okay, it wasn't a real production car: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_500_(2007)#Availability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_500_(2007)#Availability - only sold in two US states and not at all in Europe.