58 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 2 1 AUGUST 2019
BATTERY
PACKS
The effect of adding
more battery packs on the
springs is unresolved, although
weight distribution is 50:50
regardless of battery count.
All versions have brakes to
cater for three underfloorbatteries plus one under
the front seats.
`
This car needs to be the next
defining moment for Fiat
a
Δ to electrification. It’s a matter of
timing. Some people say we should
rush.” But François is not so sure.
“When government incentives
disappear, electric vehicle price
pr e s s u r e w i l l b e at it s m a x i mu m ,” he
adds, which is when he reckons there
will be room for a “better product”.
Why has this exciting car taken
so long to reach fruition, and then
on l y a s a c onc e p t , a lb e it a m i g ht y
impressive one? The answer, explains
François, was the difficulty of
choosing the moment to tell his late
boss Sergio Marchionne about the
idea. The key would be in the pitch
- and interesting Marchionne in an
area of the market not known for
y ie ld i n g muc h i n t he w ay of pr of it s.
Fr a nç oi s k e p t t r y i n g t o f i nd a
suitable slot in a product meeting
to present the idea but says he was
conscious that Marchionne “thought
I was asking for tons of money to do
something relatively banal”. Instead,
he “printed a pitch, removed the ‘new
Panda’ name – it was a barrier to
entry with Marchionne – and called
it C C 4 , for c it y c a r, fou r t h ge ne r at ion.
“I gave the pitch on a plane and
flipped through it.” Marchionne’s
reaction? “I like that.” “Then we
started prototyping, although it
wasn’t super-urgent. It would have
been too early a year ago.”
Keen to find a fresh way to
re-engage Marchionne – “we often
discussed cars, but didn’t always
a g r e e ” – Fr a nç oi s t he n m a de a
two-minute CGI video. But François
will never know if Marchionne
ever saw it. A link sent to the boss
reportedly wouldn’t open and there
was no way of telling whether a
memory stick still lying on his desk
after he died was ever viewed.
The idea gathered momentum
again when it was picked up by
Michael Manley, now FCA’s CEO.
“Why don’t you show us that conceptof yours?” he suggested. Ask François
how real this concept actually is
and he’ll tell you: “I don’t know yet.
I think the looks are very faithful
to the next-generation Panda. But,
clearly, the style is almost incidental,
a lt hou g h it ’s one t h at w e l i k e v e r y
much. What matters is the concept as
a whole. We’ll know very quickly if it’s
happening or not because we’re in the
process of vetting the future of the
Fiat portfolio. We’ve been very active
in the last three months.”
Pa r t of t h at de bat e h a s b e e n
Concept has four
seats. Production
version may get five