Expensive electric cars: We already know that...

Expensive electric cars: We already know that...

33 years ago, the traditional Italian brand Fiat showed courage and foresight and presented its bestselling Fiat Panda with electric drive. The “Fiat Panda Elettra” was a real series electric pioneer that could travel at least 100 kilometers on a single battery charge. Incidentally, when developing and manufacturing the Elettra, Fiat worked with Steyr-Daimler-Puch in Graz, where the Panda 4×4 was also produced at the time. The basis for the Elettra was the Panda CL, whose 750 Fire petrol engine was replaced by a 21 hp DC electric motor. 12 lead-acid batteries with a total of 172 Ah served as power storage. They were positioned in the vehicle in such a way that their weight placed equal pressure on the front and rear axles. Two batteries were installed directly in the engine compartment, the other ten behind the front seats. Unfortunately, the rear seats were no longer possible due to space constraints. Externally, the Elektra only differed from its petrol siblings in that it had a closed radiator grille.

To charge, you simply plug the on-board automatic charger into a normal household socket; it took around eight hours to reach full charge. Compared to the CL version with an internal combustion engine, the Fiat Panda Elettra was equipped with a reinforced braking system, a stricter suspension setting and larger tires. The four-speed gearbox and clutch remained unchanged, although the strong torque was enough to start from a standstill in third gear. What was technically revolutionary at the time was the possibility of recovering energy by braking when driving downhill. The Fiat engineers solved the problem of the interior heating by keeping the gasoline tank on board and using the fuel to supply a small burner for the heating. The electric version of the “great box” reached a maximum of 70 km/h and accelerated from 0 to 40 km/h in 10 seconds. In 1992, Fiat introduced the Panda Elettra 2, a version that was improved in terms of efficiency and had 50 percent more range. Although several thousand units were sold to authorities and institutions, the Panda Elettra flopped with private buyers. No wonder: at that time you could also get a BMW 318i in Italy for its purchase price of 25.6 million lire.