While nearly the entire auto industry has been hard at work developing hybrids and electric vehicles, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has been rather behind the curve. Currently, it only offers a plug-in version of the Chrysler Pacifica and the all-electric Fiat 500e, which it only sells to meet California emissions laws. FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne hasn’t exactly embraced electrification, but slowly, he seems to be coming around.
In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Marchionne said he’s considering an all-electric version of the upcoming Maserati Alfieri sports car, as well as a (presumably non-Maserati) electric city car. Marchionne also confirmed that a hybrid version of Maserati’s new Levante SUV is on its way.
With typical bluster, Marchionne voiced his continued skepticism for electrification while saying that FCA could replicate Tesla’s business model, as he has in the past.
“I’ve always thought the economic model that supports Tesla is something that Fiat Chrysler could replicate as we have the brand and the vehicles to do it,” said Marchionne. “I think that to use one of our potential cars as an experiment in this area is interesting.
“I’m not as convinced as some others are about the fact that electrification is the solution for all of man’s ills,” he continued. “We need to experiment as we are doing now with connected cars, and mobility as electrification is one of the potential answers.”
An all-electric Maserati would likely be a few years away if it ever arrives at all. The normal, internal-combustion Alfieri is already reportedly delayed, and an electric version likely wouldn’t arrive until a few years after the standard version. Marchionne said the electric Alfieri would possibly arrive in 2019 at the earliest.
Even still, that’s a quick development period considering that Porsche, which has been taking electrification seriously for longer than FCA, won’t release its all-electric Mission E until 2020. Of course, there’s a very real possibility that this car might not happen at all.
This story originally appeared on Road & Track via Autoblog.
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