The Ford Fiesta has been cancelled, bad news for Fiat?

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The Ford Fiesta has been cancelled, bad news for Fiat?

Well no... currently they can't even get the TPS sensors or the even charging door to behave as intended never mind the power train. It's not that it's new tech they can't even get what was well understood tech to work.
I have driven the ID3 and I could not find any fault with the car, I haven’t driven the ID4 or 5 or the IDBUZZ so I can’t comment if they have problems. VW are not in the habit of bringing cars to market with known faults hence the launch of the ID3 being delayed as long as it was. I do think there is an element of News stories looking for anything they can post about as Schadenfreude sells or rather creates drama in a story where there might be non. Let’s be honest the TPS sensors are something they have been fitting to cars for years so it doesn’t make sense that they should struggle to get that to work and i seem to remember the charging door pops open manually like the fuel flap on any other VW, press on it and it pops out. Looking on videos all the ID cars seem to open the charging door like this, so I have to wonder why/how it cannot behave as intended?
 
I have driven the ID3 and I could not find any fault with the car, I haven’t driven the ID4 or 5 or the IDBUZZ so I can’t comment if they have problems. VW are not in the habit of bringing cars to market with known faults hence the launch of the ID3 being delayed as long as it was. I do think there is an element of News stories looking for anything they can post about as Schadenfreude sells or rather creates drama in a story where there might be non. Let’s be honest the TPS sensors are something they have been fitting to cars for years so it doesn’t make sense that they should struggle to get that to work and i seem to remember the charging door pops open manually like the fuel flap on any other VW, press on it and it pops out. Looking on videos all the ID cars seem to open the charging door like this, so I have to wonder why/how it cannot behave as intended?
Oddly most of the long term tests of ID3, or ID4 seem to mention an element of odd behaviour from the car at times.

Nothing deal breaking as such but mildly inconvenient and not confidence inspiring. The way you screw up a manual flap for example is to link it to the central locking so it is locked when the car is locked. But then have the central locking only release it 99 out of 100 times. So you'll go to charge your car and realise you can't without using a manual work around. In the same way as TPS sensors that occasionally tell you all 4 tyres are flat or won't tell you the pressure from time to time..doesn't immobilise the car as such but not ideal either at best you're going to have to pull over and check. But things like this are symptomatic of having a massively complex electrical system in general.

The purchase of a robotics firm could also be them leaning hard into self-driving..as well as trying to fix reported issues. But when we ask how could Stellantis make cars cheaper? By not bothering with self driving...by not having hugely complex electrical systems.

Will the cars be as good as the potential of everything works as intended? Probably not..but they may be half the price and not require the computing of a space agency to fix.
 
I don't know how many people have seen this yet, I do keep seeing an advert pop up at the top of the forul with the picture of the car, but fiat officially launched the Abath 500e


First impressions from Journalists seem to be good, but with a but.

The car plays loud car engine noises out loud to replicate the sound of an Abarth, and they made quite a big deal about this, but many journalists don't see the point in an electric car making noises of an ICE engine.
Also Fiat have made a big deal of it being "Fun" only to have it pointed out that it really isn't a much different from the 500e just a slightly more powerful motor.

The thing about electric cars is you can dial up the "fun" with the software
 
I don't know how many people have seen this yet, I do keep seeing an advert pop up at the top of the forul with the picture of the car, but fiat officially launched the Abath 500e


First impressions from Journalists seem to be good, but with a but.

The car plays loud car engine noises out loud to replicate the sound of an Abarth, and they made quite a big deal about this, but many journalists don't see the point in an electric car making noises of an ICE engine.
Also Fiat have made a big deal of it being "Fun" only to have it pointed out that it really isn't a much different from the 500e just a slightly more powerful motor.

The thing about electric cars is you can dial up the "fun" with the software

Depends if the base car is fun I guess...you can do a reasonable amount with throttle mapping, damper rates same could be said for pretty much any "hot" hatch eg.

Suspect the "upgrade" may be related to both this: https://www.carwow.co.uk/vauxhall/a...ectric-revealed-price-specs-release-date#gref and the soon to be released electric 308 and the also soon to be released revised 208 which also has 150bhp ish.

Stellantis only really wants to make one motor by the look of it and they've got a new permanent magnet one..I'd imagine the Corsa will quietly be upgraded at some point as well.
 
The Stellantis EV mix (PSA platforms seem to have 'Dutch' powertrains
The 500 is a UK, It ..more European mainstream product)

Maybe the Abarth isnt the same as the 500??

Obviously its 2 years on.. so maybe a sign of 'the future'
I suppose it depends on how compatible the various architectures are.

Obviously anything engineered under Stellantis uses the same bits but the 500e isn't related having been engineered under FCA. The new Jeep Avenger is suddenly 156bhp as well...

Just seems very convenient when suddenly what was 130 odd bhp in everything is getting switched to 150 odd bhp. Would seem a very odd choice unless of course you've got a factory making 134bhp motors, you've developed a new one for the Pug 308 and a new battery tech but you've still only got 1 factory building the running gear.
 
Also Fiat have made a big deal of it being "Fun" only to have it pointed out that it really isn't a much different from the 500e just a slightly more powerful motor.

The thing about electric cars is you can dial up the "fun" with the software
Its quite interesting where modding might go with EVs. It is very much the case power is simply software limited and parts don't need to be swapped to gain more power (I know this is also true of remaps to some extent).
My Ampera made 150hp and 275lb-ft, GM sold the same car in a more premium guise as the Cadillac ELR. A 9 second 0-60 wouldn't satisfy a Cadillac customer of course so using the exact same motor & inverter (matching PN to Ampera & Volt) it produced 233hp and 373lb-ft. More tyre/brakes/suspension were added but in terms of adding power it was simply dump the firmware from an ELR into a Ampera/Volt. Not just a concept either, there is a modding group on facebook and a handful of people had successfully done the transplant.
 
Fiats marketing for the 500e seemed pretty non-existent in the UK. When I first saw one on the road I had zero clue one was even available.
 
This popped up on my Facebook...

Too soon Citroën?
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