In a bold move aimed at tackling soaring vehicle prices, the CEO of a major automotive brand has revealed he would "happily" impose a maximum speed limit on some of its smallest models.
A Radical Proposal to Curb Costs
Olivier François, the Chief Executive of Fiat, has publicly considered limiting the top speed of the company's city cars to 73mph (118kph). This idea is being floated as a direct alternative to fitting these compact, urban-focused vehicles with what he deems costly and unnecessary advanced safety technology.
François argues that much of the Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS)—such as sensors, cameras, and road sign recognition—mandated by current EU regulations are engineered for high-speed driving. He contends that forcing this expensive hardware onto small cars, which are predominantly used for low-speed city commuting, is driving up prices without delivering proportional benefits to their typical drivers.
The High Price of "Over-Specifying" City Cars
"We fundamentally think that with all these rules, the most unsustainable portion lies in the city cars and urban driving," François stated. He highlighted that these vehicles are "small, democratic and inexpensive," often purchased by younger people for daily city use where speeds are significantly lower.
"I have a hard time understanding why we need to install all this super-expensive hardware," he said. "All this is a little bit inadequate, a bit crazy, and has contributed to raising the average price of a city car by 60% over the last five or six years."
François pointed out that he does not believe city cars from 2018 or 2019 were "extremely dangerous," suggesting the industry has gone too far. His proposal is to "go a little bit backward from overloading cars with expensive hardware."
Aligning Performance with the Law
The proposed 73mph limit is not an arbitrary figure. François noted that it matches the average legal maximum speed limit across Europe. "Above 118kph is [often] illegal, and most of the radars, ADAS and all this stuff has been developed for cars to go way above the speed limit," he explained.
"There is something weird that I need to over-spec my cars to go above the legal speed limit," François added, emphasising the apparent contradiction in engineering vehicles to easily break the law while loading them with technology to mitigate the risks of doing so.
This radical cost-cutting strategy underscores a growing tension within the European automotive industry between stringent safety regulations and the affordability of entry-level vehicles. Whether this proposal gains traction with regulators or consumers remains to be seen.
