Fiat 500 Electric 2012 launch

The Fiat 500 Electric Concept was at the Detroit Motor Show this year

At the 2010 Detroit Motor Show Fiat brought along an electric concept version of the Fiat 500, together with a Chrysler-badged Lancia as a clear indication that times are changing at Chrysler. And it would appear they’re changing even more quickly than we expected with the announcement that the Fiat 500 EV is going in to production, and will go on sale in the US in 2012.

Obviously spurred on by the unexpected success in recent years of that other motoring retro icon the MINI, Fiat are pushing ahead with plans to introduce the regular Fiat 500 in to North America in 2010, although that will be preceded by the 500 Abarth and 500C Abarth, which will be the first versions of the 500 to reach American shores.

Details on the Fiat 500 Electric are thin on the ground, despite Fiat’s announcement that the car will hit the roads in 2012. Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne was quoted as saying that the electric 500 will come in at around $32k when it arrives, with half that cost being for the batteries. So it’s not going to be a cheap little city run-around by any means (as a comparison, the Buick Regal – the US Vauxhall Insignia – starts at $27k including all taxes).

Fiat are playing catch-up with electric cars, and the 500 is the most suitable candidate as it at least fits the City-Car profile, which is realistically the only place electric cars have any use. Interestingly, this announcement comes just four months after Chrysler seemed to drop its plan to get 500k electric cars on the road by 2013. It was a central plank of the bid for bailout funding last year, but seemed to be dropped when they released their five year plan in November.

Maybe the Fiat 500 BEV is just a sop to that promise?

By Cars UK