Nicknamed the shoebox, with its duck profile, the atypical compact 6-seater Fiat Multipla has also tried its luck in China with a 100% electric variant. Success finally assured?
Launched in 1998, the compact Fiat Multipla minivan has never gone unnoticed in the European automotive landscape. If the fashion for two-story lighting beats today its full in particular on the SUV which, by this means cleverly conceals a high perched hood, almost 25 years ago it had not yet entered the mores.
Especially since the hook at the foot of the windshield gave him an unsightly duckbill. Some unhappy people even called the Fiat Multipla “the ugliest car in automotive history”. In 2004, a major restyling attempted to rectify the situation with the grafting of a much more conventional facies, but the damage was done.
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Multiplan, the Chinese Multipla without counterfeit!
Let’s take a look at the career of the Fiat Multipla in China. As of the end of 2008, the model is produced under license, so understand that this is not a Chinese copy, but indeed a manufacture authorized by Fiat, under the Zotye brand. Its official name was Multiplan (with a final “n”) then M300 Languye before finally becoming M300EV or E300. Because if the Chinese Multipla started its career with a gasoline engine, the 1.6 gasoline engine of 103 hp of the European version, it was then converted to 100% electric, variant that we have never known on the old continent.
Zotye E300: the Multipla in electric mode
This is a licensed production with official permission from Fiat.
In the facts, the Zotye E300 had an electric motor housed under the hood with a modest power of 62 kW (approximately 82 hp) but with a very comfortable torque value of 250 Nm (against only 145 Nm for the petrol version). The assembly is powered by 80V / 60Ah batteries with a capacity of 35.2 kW. They significantly increase the weight of the machine, whose weight reaches 1,705 kg against 1,300 kg for its gasoline equivalent. According to the local NEDC homologation cycle, quite optimistic, the range is between 160 and 200 km.
“By standard exchange, recharging the batteries of the Fiat Multipla electric only required 5 minutes“
But the main feature of this “plug-in” conversion is the possibility of removing the batteries housed under the rear seats (4 blocks each weighing 65 kg) in order to considerably reduce the recharging time. Indeed, the battery exchange process only took 5 minutes, a godsend for taxi drivers who greatly appreciated the convenience of the car.
Also note that Zotye even offered a 5-seater version … which clearly took away the interest of the model. The career of the Chinese electric Multipla was not overwhelming with barely 25,000 units sold between 2010 and 2013, against 344,841 units produced in Italy at the Mirafiori plant between 1998 and 2010 for the Fiat badged variant. As for the Chinese manufacturer Zotye, who had often been talked about for unlicensed copies of European models, he went bankrupt in 2021.
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