Chrysler Group LLC will lose more than $10,000 on every battery-powered Fiat 500e its sells, Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne says.
“The economics of EVs simply don’t work. On the 500 that (Chrysler) will begin selling in the U.S. next year, we will lose over $10,000 (per unit) despite the retail price being three times higher” than a version of minicar with an internal combustion engine, Marchionne said on the sidelines of Fiat S.p.A.’s general meeting on Wednesday.
When a near-production concept the Fiat 500 EV was unveiled last year, Marchionne said the production model would start at $32,000, with the batteries accounting for half of the minicar’s cost.
Chrysler is a car company that obviously doesn’t want to make electric vehicles. Whereas many other companies can and do sell thousands of EVs, Chrysler claims it loses too much money to produce them. I would call this self-fulfilling pricing. Chrysler fought seat belts because they were ineffective. They fought airbags because they were technologically too expensive and didn’t work. They fought emission controls because they would cost too much. Chrysler is the company of “no.”