Fiat is gearing up to launch the all-electric 500e in the United States and will take inspiration from the fashion industry.
The new Fiat 500e will serve as the brand’s only model sold in the U.S. market. Fiat North America head Aamir Ahmed recently said the company will aim to recreate the “shock drops” implemented by brands like Nike when releasing new products. It hopes to create similar hype for upcoming versions of the 500e.
“We are going to more closely align ourselves with fashion and apparel in how we launch vehicles,” Ahmed said. “That is done for a reason, because that lends itself better to a digital campaign than what we have done in terms of an auto show. I cannot afford to do an auto show reveal every few months to introduce a new version of the car, right? It’s not sustainable. So what we are going to do is we are going to continue to drop vehicles. We are going to find creative ways to do that digitally.”
Ahmed says that the carmaker will not look to force “too much Italian into the conversion” when marketing the 500e as it has done in the past and instead, wants to emphasize the strengths of the electric hatchback. He says it will be one of the most affordable EVs on the market and believes most will be sold to households that already own several vehicles and will use it for short trips.
In addition, the brand has launched its Fiat Live Store which will allow shoppers to buy the 500e without needing to visit a dealership. This forms part of Fiat’s focus on digital marketing.
Read: America’s 2024 Fiat 500e Has A 149-Mile Range – Almost Twice As Long As Before
“Mr. Tavares, Olivier and I have talked extensively about trying new things and seeing what works because we have such a neat brand to deal with,” Ahmed said to Auto News. “What we want to do is be hypersensitive on the digital marketing side of it and use as much data as we can to find the right places to sell this vehicle and go after the right types of people to buy this vehicle.”
Prices for the 500e start at $34,095 including destination and while that is on the lower end of the market, it does not make it the cheapest EV on sale in the U.S.. Indeed, it is more than $3,000 pricier than the old Mini Cooper Electric and almost $5,000 more than the larger Nissan Leaf. For their money, shoppers will receive an electric motor with 117 hp and 162 lb-ft (220 Nm) of torque that provides the car with 149 miles (240 km) of range.
