Small, affordable, and electric
The European auto industry would do well to look at Japanese kei-cars for affordable EVs, according to John Elkann.
Agnelli descendant and Stellantis chairman John Elkann sees that the European auto industry is currently struggling. According to him, European car manufacturers would do well to focus on very small and affordable cars, at the level of the Fiat 500 of the last century.
Elkann is looking to Japan for this, where kei-cars have been known for years; small and affordable cars that offer a lot for their size. Elkann calls them E-Cars for Europe, because according to him they should be electric. According to Automotive News, he says: “There is no reason why, if Japan has a kei-car, which makes up 40 percent of the market, Europe could not have an E-Car.” According to him, the solution for such small and emission-free cars is that they are not affected by all kinds of regulations that currently make driving so expensive.
Elkann’s vision is not entirely new. Earlier this year, French research showed that European kei-car equivalents would be good for the European auto industry. The cars in question would fit in the gap between real dwarfs such as the Opel Rocks Electric and fully-fledged compact electric cars. They would be about 3.8 meters long and should be assessed somewhat less strictly in terms of safety requirements than the currently cheapest electric cars.
Incidentally, the recently resigned Renault CEO Luca de Meo also once advocated for European kei-car-like vehicles.