Stellantis on Tuesday announced the launch of a new small, low-cost category of fully EVs to revive Europe’s shrinking entry-level car segment, with production of the affordable “E-Car” set to begin in 2028 at its Pomigliano d’Arco plant in Italy.
The compact electric vehicle will carry a price tag of around 15,000 euros ($17,500), according to a source close to the matter cited by Reuters.
The announcement represents the first major product commitment under Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa’s emerging strategic framework — and arrives just three days before Filosa presents his first formal strategic plan on May 21 at the automaker’s US headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan.
The Fiat, Opel, and Citroen owner said production of the affordable, compact, and fully electric vehicle could deliver “significant” volumes from the Italian facility.
The E-Car Strategic Framing
Stellantis framed the E-Car project around the strategic narrative of reviving the European small-car segment, which has experienced what the company describes as “unprecedented contraction” in recent years.
The “E” in E-Car stands for European, Emotion, Electric, and Environmental friendliness — a four-letter framework designed to position the model as the embodiment of European industrial revival rather than as a generic affordable EV competitor.
“The E-Car is a concept that finds its natural match in the small car success that runs deep in our European Stellantis DNA,” Filosa said.
“Our customers are calling for a revival of small, stylish vehicles, proudly produced in Europe, which are also affordable and environmentally friendly. Stellantis is answering their call with exciting new models for multiple brands. Production is expected to start in 2028 in our Pomigliano (Italy) plant.”
The phrase “exciting new models for multiple brands” suggests the E-Car platform will underpin variants across Stellantis’s European brand portfolio — likely including Fiat, Opel, Citroen, Peugeot, and potentially DS Automobiles.
The European Sales Decline Context
The E-Car announcement comes as Stellantis confronts a structural decline in its European market position.
In 2019, the combined European sales of PSA and FCA — the two groups that merged to form Stellantis in January 2021 — totaled 3,413,829 units.
Stellantis’s full-year 2025 European sales fell to 1,892,556 units — representing a 45% decline from the combined pre-merger 2019 baseline.
The European Commission has formally recognized the high potential of the small affordable car segment for its capacity to boost European design and manufacturing jobs while supporting the wider adoption of full electric vehicles for everyday, city-centric mobility.
The E-Car’s market positioning — designed for “convenient, everyday, city-centric mobility” — addresses the segment that has historically anchored European car ownership for entry-level buyers, urban families, and second-vehicle purchasers.
The Pomigliano d’Arco Plant
The Pomigliano d’Arco plant, located near Naples in Italy’s Campania region, has been one of Stellantis’s most strategically important European manufacturing facilities since the original FCA-era investment in small-car production.
The plant has historically produced the Fiat Panda — a vehicle that has anchored European small-car sales for decades — and is now being repositioned as the manufacturing hub for Stellantis’s most affordable next-generation EV.
The “Kei Car for Europe” Framing
Stellantis Chairman John Elkann and former Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo have both urged the European Union to adopt a new class of small cars that would cost less to develop — potentially with different safety regulations and reduced size and power envelopes.
De Meo has explicitly framed the proposed segment as a “kei car for Europe” — a nod to Japan’s class of small, limited-displacement cars that have served as a structural pillar of Japanese urban mobility for decades.
Stellantis has not yet specified whether the E-Car will fall within the standard European passenger car class or the proposed new smaller-vehicle category — leaving meaningful uncertainty about the model’s final regulatory framework, safety equipment requirements, and pricing structure.
The company has also not disclosed key operational details about the E-Car program, including specific battery technology choices, drivetrain configuration, expected production volumes at Pomigliano, the specific brand or brands that will market the model, or the timing of the European Commission’s potential adoption of a “kei car for Europe” regulatory framework that could lower development costs.
The Competitive Landscape
If the E-Car launches as a minicar at the indicated 15,000-euro price point, it would face an increasingly crowded European affordable-EV segment.
The Renault Twingo — built in Slovenia — starts at less than €20,000 and is expected to anchor the segment when its electric variant launches in 2026.
Dacia and Nissan are both developing variants based on the Renault Ampere platform.
Volkswagen will be launching the ID.1 electric minicar in 2027 — providing direct competition at the volume European entry-level segment.
The arrival of Stellantis’s E-Car in 2028 would slot in approximately one year after the Volkswagen ID.1 launch and two years after the Renault Twingo electric debut — meaning Stellantis faces structural late-mover risk in the segment it is positioning itself to revive.
The Partnership Approach
Stellantis stated the E-Car models will be powered by world-class battery electric vehicle technologies developed “with selected partners to boost affordability and achieve an accelerated time-to-market.”
The “selected partners” framing aligns with Stellantis’s broader partnership-driven approach to EV development — which has included the Chinese partnership with Leapmotor under the LPMI joint venture and potential discussions with Chinese automakers about investing in Stellantis’s European factories.
The Leapmotor partnership has already produced commercial results in the European entry-level segment — with the Leapmotor T03 city car and C10 SUV being distributed through Stellantis’s European dealer network under the LPMI structure.
The LPMI joint venture was launched in mid-2024 as a 51/49 Stellantis-led structure with exclusive rights for the sale and manufacturing of Leapmotor products outside Greater China.
Stellantis became Leapmotor‘s single largest shareholder in October 2023 with an approximately 21% stake, which has since been diluted to approximately 19%.
The Chinese Manufacturing Pressure
The E-Car announcement comes as Stellantis faces intensifying pressure from Chinese automakers seeking to acquire European manufacturing capacity.
BYD Executive VP Stella Li disclosed last week that the world’s largest seller of electric vehicles is in talks with Stellantis and other European automakers about acquiring underutilized factories across the continent.
“We are talking to not only Stellantis, we’re talking to other companies too,” Li told Bloomberg on the sidelines of the Financial Times Future of the Car conference in London last week.
“We are looking for any available plant in Europe because we do want to utilize this kind of spare capacity.”
Stellantis has reportedly been in talks with Dongfeng, Xiaomi, and XPeng about investing in its European factories — with Cassino and Rennes cited as possible targets.
Earlier this month, Chinese state-owned Hongqi was reported to be in talks to produce cars in Spain through a Stellantis plant, with negotiations allegedly held through Leapmotor — in which Hongqi’s parent FAW Group also holds a stake.
The Existing Capacity Restructuring
Stellantis has already taken concrete actions to restructure its European manufacturing footprint amid the broader contraction.
Under a deal with unions, the Poissy plant in France will stop making cars around 2028 — coinciding with the E-Car production start at Pomigliano.
Leapmotor will take over an assembly plant in Madrid and absorb a percentage of capacity at the Zaragoza, Spain factory — with Stellantis and Leapmotor reportedly discussing the potential transfer of the Villaverde plant’s ownership to LPMI’s Spanish subsidiary.
The combined restructuring effectively reallocates Stellantis’s European production capacity from underutilized facilities toward more focused, partner-backed operations — while concentrating new investment at strategically important plants like Pomigliano for the E-Car program.
The May 21 Strategic Plan Context
The E-Car announcement positions Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa to deliver his first strategic plan on May 21 at the company’s US headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan.
The Auburn Hills location signals Filosa’s emphasis on Stellantis’s largest profit pool — North America, where the company sells high-margin full-size Ram pickups and Jeep SUVs with relatively limited emissions or fuel-economy constraints compared with Europe.
