Fiat Professional unveils to the press the new E-Ducato, 100% Ducato, 100% electric, ready for every mission

• For the 40^th anniversary of the model’s launch, #Fiat Professional unveiled to journalists the full-electric version of the Ducato, orders for which opened on March 1^st.
• Ideal to meet transportation mission needs with specific effectiveness in the city, the #educato was created to meet customers’ requirements and was planned in collaboration with customers themselves.
• In particular, a strategic #partnership was started with #dhl in 2016, with the common goal of guiding the transition to the creation of a zero-emissions fleet.
• The #educato has been designed and built to guarantee performance and an operating cost in line with the corresponding versions with internal combustion engines.
• All the most advanced connectivity systems are available for the #educato, courtesy of the inclusion of Mopar^® Connect as standard.
• Leasys and FCA Bank are supporting the new #educato with dedicated rental and financing solutions.
• A communications campaign aimed at highlighting all the advantages of electric traction, simply and understandably.
• The collaboration with the Stellantis e-Mobility team resulted in the creation of Pro Fit by #educato (available on the web and as an app, free from the App Store and Google Play), so the user can configure the perfect make-up of their new electric fleet, indicating the most suitable #educato configurations for the customer’s business. 

To unveil the #educato, the first 100% zero-emissions electric Ducato, #Fiat Professional has chosen April 22^nd, the 51^st Earth Day, a worldwide event focused on protecting the environment and sending out the right kind of eco-friendly information and education. 

The #educato was unveiled “on-the-road” at a web conference taking place at several venues, hosted by Massimo Temporelli, a university lecturer and passionate popularizer of science. Temporelli linked up to several Stellantis and #dhl managers, including Eric Laforge, Head of LCV Enlarged Europe at Stellantis, and Alberto Nobis, CEO of #dhl EXPRESS Europe, who went in greater depth into the collaboration between the two companies to produce the new model.

Eric Laforge began with the history of the Ducato, celebrating its 40^th year on the market in 2021 with confirmation as one of the market leaders. Its constant progress has continued, culminating in the position of the best-selling commercial vehicle – all segments included – in Europe in 2020. This success goes hand in hand with its household name as the best motorhome base vehicle and the best-selling vehicle in its class for the 6^th year running, the result of a history of constant product developments that have always anticipated customer requirements. 

E-Ducato – Ready for any Mission

In the words of Eric Laforge: “For the #educato, we started from the idea of creating not only a “green” vehicle, but also a complete mobility solution, characterized by versatility, reliability, efficiency and sustainability (at both an environmental and an economic level): in short, a working tool to build up your business while respecting the precepts of ecology, a model ready for every mission, uncompromisingly aiming to be the benchmark in the market and to be equipped with the same capabilities as vehicles with internal combustion engines. Its 400 configurations mean it can meet the needs of all professional operators, from freight fleets and construction companies to artisans and municipal service providers.” 

100% product efficiency, a project aiming at TCO parity

Starting off from the configuration of the electrics, this confirms that the #educato has been modeled around customers’ requirements. Courtesy of its original, uncompromising “all-forward” architecture, with no bulk at the bottom of the chassis and ample distance between the side rails, the new model’s batteries are optimally placed under the floor, leaving intact a load capacity that ranges from 10 to 17 cc in volume and almost 2 tons of weight. Other obvious advantages are the optimal distribution of weight and the lowering of the center of gravity, to improve the vehicle’s handling under all load conditions.

The #educato can achieve equivalent performance to diesel versions, courtesy of an electric motor with maximum torque of 280 NM delivering up to 90 kW of power (approximately 122 hp) and 0-50 km/h acceleration in 5 seconds.

The #educato is also fitted out with a series of modular solutions, starting from 2 different battery blocks – 47 kWh and 79 kWh, best-in-class for installed electrical capacity, and 4 types of charging modes, 3 of which are available at launch. With a 47-kWh battery, the #educato can travel up to 170 km in the WLTP cycle and up to 235 km in the urban cycle. With a 79-kWh battery, the distances increase to 280 km in the WLTP cycle, equivalent to 370 km in the urban cycle. It takes no longer than half an hour to charge up enough to drive 100 km.

On that front, it is also worth mentioning that the batteries have a warranty for 10 years or 220,000 km on the 79-kWh version, or 8 years/160,000 km on the 47-kWh model.
Once again in terms of flexibility, it is worth noting that, to meet such a wide and diverse range of needs, the #educato also offers the Drive Mode Selector: in “Normal” position, it ensures the ideal balance between performance and costs, or it can be set to “Eco” mode to save energy. When a really heavy load needs to be carried or the vehicle is facing a demanding ascent, the right choice is “Power” mode. #educato has another two features to provide drivers with safeguard drivers’ peace of mind:

• “Turtle Mode”, similar to the battery saver function on a mobile phone, which is activated automatically when the battery is low and limits vehicle performance, to make the battery last 8-10% longer.
• “Recovery Mode”, making the #educato the only electric vehicle that never stops. In fact, if one battery module does not work, the others take its place to make sure it can keep going.

All in all, the model’s flexibility, its best-in-class specs and its reliability guarantee its residual market value.

On top of that, the maintenance costs for the #educato will be about 40% lower than a vehicle with a conventional engine. Its total cost of ownership (TCO) in its main missions can therefore be expected to be in line with the diesel versions: a great result, making the vehicle sustainable not only from an environmental perspective, but also an economic one, providing a business-oriented solution.

In Italy, the #educato is priced from €42,700 + VAT with a trade-in. Included in the price is the Top Care by Mopar program, including routine maintenance and a warranty extension to 5 years or 120,000 km.

With the #educato, it is possible to achieve parity of Total Cost of Ownership (taking into account current incentive conditions and current market rates) compared to a comparable diesel vehicle in just 48 months, based on usage of 20,000 km per year. 

The #partnership with DHL

Underlying the highly competitive performance of the #educato are 5 years of real-world data collection. This has taken the form of 4,000 connected vehicles that uploaded data for 1 year, when the vehicles traveled over 50 million kilometers, in all driving, loading and weather conditions. The work was carried out at fast pace, in very close collaboration with customers representative of different types of #delivery and professional mission, to identify bespoke solutions from the prototype phase onwards, not only specifically but most of all in the real world, based on the needs of individual customers.

In the quest for a partner offering the best value, Stellantis began a tight-knit collaboration in 2016 with #dhl, a world leader in international freight transport, highly specialized in its field, strongly oriented towards innovation and experiencing real growth, down to the e-commerce boom. This #partnership has given rise to a virtuous circle with the possibility of a focus on the #educato, starting from DHL’s real-world missions, and to project them into a context of sustainable electric mobility. In the words of Alberto Nobis, CEO of #dhl EXPRESS Europe: “We firmly believe that the future of last-mile logistics is electric. To achieve our objective of connecting people and improving their lives, we are committed to becoming greener and cleaner in what we do every single day. By adding E-Ducatos to our fleet, we will take the next big step in reaching our goal of electrifying most of our last-mile #delivery by 2030. We’ve found what we were looking for in #Fiat Professional: state-of-the-art technology and powerful batteries that will enable us to travel until 200 km on a single charge, to get to our customers quickly while respecting the environment.”

For Eric Laforge, Head of LCV Enlarged Europe at Stellantis, the #educato project is a journey towards innovation and the future: “We’re proud that a player as important as #dhl Express has chosen the #educato as part of such an ambitious goal. With the #educato, our task was not only to develop a sustainable product from both an economic and environmental perspective, but most of all to provide a complete mobility solution for our partners.” 

E-Ducato connectivity – Apps and services

There was no way Mopar Connect could miss out on its contribution to the development of the #educato, with its aim of providing professionals with refined new tools, both to improve efficiency in how they use their vehicles, and to evaluate the profitability of their operating costs.

Great importance was given over to the wide range of functions that can be activated “remotely”, including My:Fleet Manager, the new fleet management service, 6 months of which are included in the price of the vehicle as a special promotion for the #educato. Using a web-based platform, fleet managers will be able to keep the main variables for each unit in the fleet under control in real time, including mileage, location and updates on maintenance, charging schedule and much more. All this with the aim of improving fleet efficiency and productivity, reducing costs, preventing risks, and ensuring the safety of both the vehicle and the driver.

On top of that, the inclusion of Mopar^® Connect as standard on all E-Ducatos provides a wide range of other services, such as assistance in the event of an accident or breakdown (the telematics box, which detects the vehicle’s location, ensures prompt, targeted service 24/7). If the vehicle is stolen, the system can locate it and prevent it from being restarted, to make it easier to find. The Uconnect LIVE mobile app means you can check whether you have closed the doors, find where you’ve parked it and receive an alert if the vehicle is moved from its previous location or exceeds a preset speed limit.

The Uconnect LIVE mobile app also includes a wide range of other features, such as my:Car, providing remote control of battery level or tire pressure, as well as monthly vehicle health reports. There is also the my:Journey service, to view and manage all vehicle movements, and the my:eCharge pack, developed specifically for the #educato, to plan charging, find, use and pay for public charge points and manage charging from your connected Wallbox.

Further information in the press release to download