On World Environment Day 2021 (June 5), Fiat CEO and Stellantis CMO Olivier Francois revealed that the automaker will gradually phase out the internal combustion engine and go fully electric by 2030.
“Between 2025 and 2030, our product line-up will gradually become electric-only. This will be a radical change for Fiat,” he said, adding that Fiat’s new mission is to create sustainable mobility for all. “It is our duty to bring to market electric cars that cost no more than those with an internal combustion engine, as soon as we can, in line with the falling costs of batteries,” Francois noted.
Besides making the cars more accessible, he said there has to be a rethink on the infrastructure of apartment buildings of the future. The primary issue for motorists living in apartments is the lack of access to a charging outlet, so this has to be addressed. Francois also said existing buildings will have to be adapted to include chargers, and cities must move quicker with integrating charging stations.
Fiat isn’t just limiting its “go green” movement by switching to electric cars. Francois highlighted the importance of increasing interest in environmental issues, such as combining urban mobility and sustainable architecture to make cities healthier and easier to live in.
For example, Francois said in just the next few months, the legendary track on the roof of the former Lingotto factory in Turin will be converted into the largest hanging gardens in Europe, hosting over 28,000 plants. This is a “major, meaningful – and once again sustainable – project, due to revitalise the city of Turin, our home,” the CEO said.
Speaking on the same subject with Francois is urban architect Stefano Boeri, who said that “cities are responsible for more than 70% of CO2 emissions, which are at the root of global warming and the emissions pf pollutants that endanger our health, it is clear that cities are where we most need to change.”
“The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us how fragile our lives and bodies can be. And so, it showed us the importance of improving the environment in which we live,” Boeri explained. Through his firm, Boeri offers solutions to protect and increase permeable and green surfaces in the city, create new parks and gardens, transform city roofs into lawns and vegetable gardens, and transforming perimeter walls and urban barriers into green façades.
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