Madrid is becoming the stage for a new experiment for Stellantis and the car-sharing company Free2move. On Tuesday, June 12, 2025, the automotive group announced the arrival of a fleet of 40 Fiat 500e vehicles, equipped with a removable and interchangeable battery system developed by Ample, a startup founded in 2014 in San Francisco. Within a few weeks, 100 cars should be available in the Spanish capital – before a potential expansion to other capitals such as Paris.
"Madrid, a pioneering city in the adoption of EVs in Spain, offers an ideal setting for this pilot project. Its commitment to reducing emissions by 65% by 2030, as well as its support for the national target of 5.5 million EVs by the same deadline, illustrates its desire to encourage cleaner and more innovative mobility solutions,” reads a press release from Stellantis, which believes that the interchangeable battery will help revive car sharing.
“For car sharing fleets, every minute off the road is lost revenue. We are committed to ensuring a seamless transition to electric for Free2move, not only in theory, but also in daily operations. With our 5-minute battery swaps, we eliminate downtime, allowing Free2move to keep its vehicles running, its customers moving, and its operations fully active,” emphasized Khaled Hassounah, CEO of Ample. Like any car, the Californian company's battery packs can be replaced in each Fiat 500e from a gate, where a bridge will lift the city car before an articulated arm comes to replace the empty battery with a full one. The operation would take 5 minutes, and resembles what Nio and CATL are trying to democratize in China with their ultra-fast "battery swap" systems. At the end of 2024, Nio launched its 4.0 station, capable of replacing 480 batteries per day.
With the Fiat 500e, the Italian manufacturer, a member of Stellantis, no longer has many ambitions. By recycling its models with Free2move, it gives itself the opportunity to end on a better note, while production of the electric city car stopped last year at its factory in Turin (Mirafiori), due to lack of demand. Since then, the brand has struggled to find a solution with its model, which it was redirecting towards production with a combustion engine. To meet its electric objectives, hopes are now focused on the Fiat Grande Panda, which is suffering from labor problems.
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