After Fiat, Opel also Wants a Small Electric Car Under €15,000

After Fiat, Opel could also take advantage of Stellantis' new e-Car platform to develop an electric city car for less than 15,000 euros. According to the Italian press, the German manufacturer is even considering reviving the Agila to return to the A segment.

The Stellantis group made a major offensive at the World Cup under the sign of neo-retro, notably with the 2CV at Citroën. If the 2CV has garnered all the attention, the other brands in the Stellantis group could take advantage of its platform to produce a very affordable electric vehicle. After Fiat, it is Opel which seems to be interested in the e-Car platform.

Currently, the Opel range only has the aging Corsa as an electric city car. On the other hand, the Opel Frontera is newer and one of the most affordable electric SUVs. However, it remains at more than 20,000 euros, which is not within the reach of all budgets.

Opel would then be interested in using the e-Car platform introduced with the 2CV to offer an affordable electric city car in its range, at less than 15,000 euros. According to information published by the Italian media Quattroruote, Opel would take advantage of this platform to revive the Agila. An A-segment city car disappeared in 2015, before being replaced by the Karl until 2019 and seeing Opel withdraw from the A segment.

It seems that Renault has succeeded, with the Twingo, in relaunching a real race for the A segment with electric engines in Europe. There is already the Dacia Spring and the Nissan Pixo, which rely on the technical base of the Twingo, but it is now Stellantis which is preparing segment A cars with the Citroën 2CV, the Fiat Koala, the Leapmotor T03 and certainly the Opel Agila. Volkswagen has confirmed that it is preparing an A-segment city car for the end of 2027 based on the ID.1 concept. There is also the BYD Dolphin Surf, which will soon be produced in Europe.

This segment, which almost disappeared, is gradually regaining color. The electric engine has re-motivated manufacturers, who have been able to slightly increase the prices of these cars for the benefit of better profitability in the A segment. But above all, for Stellantis, it is the M1E category that Europe is preparing that interests the group. This category will be advantageous in the calculation of the CO2 balance. Marketing these small electric city cars will benefit the entire range, including hybrid cars.

Also, increasing the number of cars using the platform makes it possible to reduce the distribution of development costs and sell less expensive cars to the customer. This is exactly the strategy that Volkswagen is adopting with the MEB+ platform used for the ID. Polo, the ID. Cross, the Skoda Epiq and the Cupra Raval.

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Machine-translated from French