Stellantis plans to offer Fiat Topolino all-electric four-wheeler in the US
Stellantis
Detroit – Chrysler’s parent company Stellantis On Monday, Fiat announced it would launch a small all-electric “car” called the Fiat Topolino in the United States.
The automaker has not announced when the car will go on sale, but Fiat CEO Olivier Francois confirmed the company’s plans to bring the car to market, saying “details will be announced next year.”
Fiat’s announcement comes less than a week after President Donald Trump praised Japan’s small “kei” cars during a White House meeting with Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa and other U.S. lawmakers and auto industry executives.
“They’re so small. They’re really cute,” Trump said during a meeting Wednesday. “And I said, ‘How would that be in this country?’ And everyone seems to think it’s ‘good,’ but they’re not allowed to make it.”
President Trump said he has ordered Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy to allow small vehicles, such as light “micro” cars, to be manufactured and driven in the United States. It’s not necessarily illegal to build such cars in the United States, but they must meet U.S. safety standards, speed requirements, and other regulations.
A Stellantis spokeswoman said Fiat’s announcement was unrelated to President Trump’s comments last week and that the company was gauging customer interest in Topolino at auto shows and other U.S. events.
Stellantis says the Topolino, which means “little mouse” in Italian, is actually classified as an “all-electric four-wheeler” rather than a car. It has a top speed of about 28 miles per hour and a range of up to 75 kilometers (less than 50 miles) on a single charge. This vehicle is produced in Morocco.
Small cars have historically not sold well in the United States.
The most recent significant effort to boost small car sales in the United States occurred after the Great Recession in 2009 under the Obama administration. At the time, Italian automaker Fiat was given permission to buy bankrupt automaker Chrysler to help bring these cars to the United States.
Fiat and its 500 small city car re-entered the U.S. market in 2011 during Fiat’s acquisition of Chrysler (both are now owned by Stellantis).
In the first full year of 2012, Fiat sold 43,772 vehicles in the U.S., but sales have since declined to about 1,500 Fiat cars sold in the U.S. last year.
