Fiat Chrysler [FCA] CEO Sergio Marchionne has laid out an electric future for Maserati during an earnings phone call with investors, exposing that all vehicles made under the Maserati brand from 2019 onwards will be electrified in some way.
It’s somewhat similar to a setting set out by Volvo earlier this month – the Swedish manufacturer has likewise verified plans to offer only hybrid as well as all electric vehicles from 2019 onwards, with five new all-electric vehicles organized by 2025.
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During the seminar call, Marchionne called electrification “an integral part of the advancement of the [Fiat Chrysler] group” adding “we [FCA] have been reluctant to accept that avenue up until we saw clearer the path forward”.
Fiat Chrysler has been sluggish to accept electrification compared to other major carmaking groups because of an imbalance of demand as well as advancement costs. In 2014, Marchionne even went so far as to tell clients not to buy the electric Fiat 500e, as each vehicle lost the business around £8,300.
The FCA manager told investors as well as listening journalists that the group will kick on with an preliminary electrification plan that will wrap up in 2022, by which time more than half the FCA fleet will be electrified in some method with Maserati “in particular” championing the change.
“When it [Maserati] completes the advancement of its next two models, it will effectively switch all of its portfolio to electrification”, stated Marchionne.
“As these products come up for renewal publish 2019, it will begin introducing vehicles which are all-electric as well as which embody, I think, what will be thought about specify of the art technology.”
One of these very first electrified vehicles to show up under the Maserati brand might be the Alfieri. revealed in idea type at the Geneva motor show back in 2014, Marchionne exposed in an interview last year that it might appear with an electrified powertrain a long time after 2019.
FCA plans to hold an financier day early in 2018 to outline future product plans, so we should get more details then. Marchionne will not see out the five-year electrification push though, as he has verified plans to retire in 2019.
Is now the time for FCA to push ahead with electrification? tell us your thoughts in the comments.
