The niche sports car marque will abandon selling models with combustion engines in just two years’ time as 2024 will represent the cutoff date of the ol’ ICE. Paving the way for an electric future, Abarth has taken to social media to indirectly tease what will be its very first EV. An online survey on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok channel invites fans to choose the sound made by the AVAS.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Abarth_Official (@abarth)

If the acronym doesn’t ring a bell, it stands for Acoustic Vehicle Alert System. It represents an acoustic warning that alerts pedestrians about an approaching electric vehicle. AVAS works at speeds of up to 12 mph (20 km/h) and serves as a mandatory safety warning to avoid accidents. Without this artificial noise, there’s a higher risk a pedestrian could be injured by not hearing the nearby EV.

Rather than developing a boring noise to meet the regulations, Abarth is spicing things by coming up with three special soundtracks: Next Track, Cyber Fun, and Rock’n Roar. Enthusiasts are asked to choose their favorite, with the most popular of the three to become the AVAS on what will be the company’s first electric car.

The model in question is rumored to go by the name of Abarth 595E. It should have a bit more electric punch than the latest Fiat 500 where the motor pushes out 118 horsepower and 162 pound-feet (220 Newton-meters) of torque. The mainstream version with the larger 42-kWh battery pack is not what we’d call peppy, needing nine seconds until 62 mph (100 km/h) before maxing out at 93 mph (150 km/h).

A proper teaser should be published later this year, but Abarth hasn’t said a worth about whether the production model will arrive in 2024 or sooner.

Source: Abarth

The post Abarth EV Teased On Social Media Where Fans Can Choose Its Sound appeared first on EVGLOBE - News on Electric Vehicles and Hybrids.

The zero-emissions model in question is likely a next-gen Panda as previewed by the Centoventi concept a few years ago. It will be larger than the electric 500 city car already on sale and we’re hoping it will retain the all-wheel-drive system that has made the previous Panda models so capable. That would obviously require one electric motor at the front and another at the rear.

Fiat and Abarth are the latest on a long list of Stellantis brands announcing plans to ditch the combustion engine in Europe before the end of the decade. Also in 2027, Alfa Romeo will abandon gasoline and diesel engines on the Old Continent. Opel and Vauxhall will follow suit a year later, in 2028. Meanwhile, luxury brand DS Automobiles will launch only EVs from 2024 when Lancia will start to introduce only hybrids and EVs. Come 2026, the troubled Italian brand will exclusively introduce BEVs.

Before that happens, Jeep will have its very first purely electric model on sale by the end of 2023. In the same interval, Maserati will introduce the Grecale crossover and next-gen GranTurismo / GranCabrio sports cars powered by electric motors. A new Dodge Hornet heavily based on the Alfa Romeo Tonale will hit the US with a plug-in hybrid powertrain. Over in Europe, Peugeot will get an unknown PHEV, likely a 4008 coupe-crossover related to the 308 plug-in hybrid hatchback / wagon.

As far as Citroën is concerned, it too wants to roll out two EVs by late 2023, one of which could be an all-new C3 supermini.

Source: Stellantis

The post Fiat And Abarth Will Sell Only EVs In Europe From 2027 appeared first on EVGLOBE - News on Electric Vehicles and Hybrids.