By William Maley
Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com
April 22, 2013
Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne disclosed during a speech at SAE World Congress in Detroit last week that for every Fiat 500e sold, the company expects to lose around $10,000.
“For every 500 electric that we produce even after all the subsidies we will lose about $10,000 bucks a car. Doing that on a large scale would be masochism to the extreme,” Marchionne said.
Marchionne disclosed the figure to make a point. He believes that electric vehicles won’t be enough for automakers to meet the new ambitious fuel economy regulations set for 2025 by the U.S. Government. The regulations say automakers have to reach a fleet average of 35.5 MPG by 2016 and then reach an average of 54.5 MPG by 2025. Automakers can earn government credits, which help get an automaker closer to the average, by building hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. Marchionne sees this as a problem since the Government is saying hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles are the only solution to this problem.
“A number of governments around the world including the U.S. have provided incentives for consumers to purchase plug-in electric vehicles and have provided direct incentives to manufacturers.My fear is that regulators are rushing precipitously into embracing electric vehicles as the only technological solution,” Marchionne said.
Instead, Marchionne is urging for “technological neutral” regulation should be encouraged.
Source: Detroit Free Press
William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.
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