Fiat built an electric Ducato in 1992 — the "Elettra," running on 28 lead-acid gel batteries packed into an 868 kg wooden box, decades before electric vans were a market.
Lead trim: 1.8 PSA 169B carburettor OHV (69 PS) · up to 94 hp
Fiat Ducato1981–1993
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Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Fiat Ducato yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactFiat built an electric Ducato in 1992 — the "Elettra," running on 28 lead-acid gel batteries packed into an 868 kg wooden box, decades before electric vans were a market.
The result of Fiat's collaboration with PSA Peugeot Citroën, with development starting in 1978 and launch in 1981, built by Sevel at Val di Sangro (Atessa) and Pomigliano d'Arco alongside the near-identical Alfa Romeo AR6, Citroën C25 and Peugeot J5 (sold as the Talbot Express in the UK, 1986-94); the earlier Fiat 242 and Citroën C35 of 1974 came from the same partnership. It is a front-wheel-drive van, minibus and pickup (trim levels base, S and SX) with 1.8 and 2.0 PSA petrol fours or 1.9 and 2.4/2.5 diesels including a turbo, and from August 1992 the Ducato Elettra with a 43 kW (58 hp) Leroy-Somer DC motor, 28 six-volt gel batteries and a range of 70 km. The Ducato later became the most common motorhome base in Europe and, since 2014, the Ram ProMaster in North America; over 3.5 million had been built by the time of the latest figures.
Collectors Spotted in the Fiat Ducato Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Fiat Ducato yet — the First · Worldwide stamp is wide open.
Trims & Figures
11 published trims in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.8 PSA 169B carburettor OHV (69 PS) | 1981–1993 | 1.8 L Inline-4 | 68 hp | 100 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| 1929 D Fiat 149B diesel SOHC (69 PS) | 1981–1993 | 1.9 L Inline-4 | 68 hp | 89 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| 1929 TD Fiat 280A turbodiesel SOHC (82 PS) | 1981–1993 | 1.9 L Inline-4 | 81 hp | 133 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| 2.0 PSA 170B carburettor OHV (75 PS) | 1981–1993 | 2.0 L Inline-4 | 74 hp | 108 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| 2.0 PSA 170B carburettor OHV (78 PS) | 1981–1993 | 2.0 L Inline-4 | 77 hp | 112 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| 2.0 PSA 170C carburettor OHV (86 PS) | 1981–1993 | 2.0 L Inline-4 | 85 hp | 118 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| 2.0 cat PSA 170D carburettor OHV (84 PS) | 1981–1993 | 2.0 L Inline-4 | 83 hp | 118 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| 2445 D Sofim 8144.61 diesel SOHC (72 PS) | 1981–1993 | 2.4 L Inline-4 | 71 hp | 108 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| 2445 TD Sofim 8144.21 diesel SOHC (92 PS) | 1981–1993 | 2.4 L Inline-4 | 91 hp | 159 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| 2500 D Sofim 8144.07 diesel SOHC (75 PS) | 1981–1993 | 2.5 L Inline-4 | 74 hp | 119 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| 2500 TD Sofim 8140.27 turbodiesel SOHC (95 PS) | 1981–1993 | 2.5 L Inline-4 | 94 hp | 159 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
Owning one
We don’t estimate running costs for a car like this. What it costs depends on its condition, its specialist and how it is driven, and an average would mislead.
Owners’ builds
Nobody has claimed one yet.
Photographs
In April 2021 Fiat launched the electric E-Ducato — co-developed not with another automaker, but with the delivery company that would actually drive it: DHL.
This single Ducato generation was built almost everywhere at once: Italy, Poland, Brazil, Turkey, and from 2006 Russia, all feeding the same production run.
Fiat built an electric Ducato in 1992 — the "Elettra," running on 28 lead-acid gel batteries packed into an 868 kg wooden box, decades before electric vans were a market.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
Chevy pitched the Astro as the anti-minivan, telling buyers life was too big for one, while it rode on a rear-wheel-drive truck frame.
The IIHS rated the Astro Poor in a 1996 crash test, yet 2001–2004 Astros later had the lowest driver death rate of any US passenger vehicle.
The boxy, unglamorous Astro quietly posted one of the best real-world safety records in America: IIHS found 2001-2004 models had the fewest driver deaths per million vehicles of any passenger vehicle on US roads.
The third-generation Tourneo Connect, released in Europe in October 2021, is a rebadged fourth-generation Volkswagen Caddy, assembled by Volkswagen in Poland.
Ford beat the 25% "chicken tax" by importing the Transit Connect as a passenger van — rear windows and seats included, then stripped out and recycled once it landed in the US.
Ford spent years in federal court over the second-gen Transit Connect: in June 2019 the US won its appeal, and judges ruled the van was cargo-only — ending Ford's workaround for the 'chicken tax.'
GM sold a rebadged Nissan NV200 as the Chevy City Express for four years, then killed it in 2018, citing weak sales and the fact that its parts weren't even compatible with GM's own parts catalog.
Its name is a pun: "S-Cargo" means "Small Cargo" but sounds just like escargot — French for snail, the shape the whole van was built to resemble.