Fiat 500 Electric review

The Fiat 500 has been reborn as an electric car, but it keeps its all-important retro-chic looks and you can still have it as a hard-top or cabriolet. It is bigger and heavier than before, though, and competes with some strong EV alternatives such as the Honda e, Mini Electric, Renault Zoe and Peugeot e-208.

Rather than add a bunch of fiddly details to the outside, Fiat’s gone back to basics and made the 500 look smoother, more rounded and even more minimalist than before. It’s like your grandad suddenly ditching the dyed comb-over and shaving his head instead. Smoother, simpler, cooler.

For starters, the old car’s headlights have been ditched in favour of two semi-circular lamps with a curved daytime-running lights that shine out through the bonnet.

The flush door handles and hidden indicators are pretty much the only difference you’ll spot from the side, and the lack of an exhaust pipe is a dead giveaway that you’re looking at the new car from behind.

OK, so the new Fiat 500 looks pretty similar to the old car on the outside, but it’s a totally different story inside. There’s a brand-new seven-inch digital dial display instead of traditional dials, and you get a big 10-inch touchscreen on the dashboard with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring.

The physical controls for the heating and air conditioning are grouped together under the central touchscreen and there’s a storage tray where you’d find a gear lever in a petrol- or diesel-powered car.

Space in the front is good for two adults and there are decent storage options, but the back seats cater for two only, and they’ll have to be quite small people at that. Fitting a child seat is pretty much impossible, too, while the 500’s boot is good for the weekly shop, but not much else. It is a city car, after all.

If you aren't ready to go electric, fear not: Fiat will continue to sell the 'old' 500 powered by its mild-hybrid petrol engine alongside this new model for a few years yet.

The new Fiat 500 comes with either a 23.7kWh battery with a 115-mile range or a 42kWh battery that gives it a 199-mile range. That’s better than a Honda e or Smart EQ, but worse than a Renault Zoe. You can recharge your 500 using a three-pin socket, but that’ll take all night – literally. You’ll be better off getting the optional 7.4kW wall box that’ll fully charge its batteries in a little over six hours.

You’ll also want to shell out extra for the 11kW charging cable, which will speed things up nicely – although it’s annoying Fiat charges extra for it at all.

The quickest way to charge the larger battery in the new Fiat 500 is using an 85kW public fast charger. These can top it up from empty to 80% charged in 35 minutes, and add a useful 30 miles of charge in just five minutes.

The Fiat 500 comes with either a 95hp motor that can hustle it from 0-62mph in 9.5 seconds, or a 118hp electric motor with enough poke to accelerate it from 0-62mph in nine seconds. That doesn’t sound particularly fast but the new 500 will do 0-30mph in three seconds, which is nippy in town and faster than most small city cars.

Also handy in town is the new 500’s automatic emergency braking that’ll spot pedestrians and cyclists in your path and automatically apply the brakes if it thinks you’re about to hit them. There’s also adaptive cruise control that’ll accelerate and brake for you on motorways to keep you a safe distance from the car ahead.

There are three driving modes, Normal, Range and Sherpa. Range mode uses the motor to recharge the batteries when you brake to help boost the Fiat 500’s range, while Normal model tones down this ‘regenerative braking’ effect.

The Sherpa function limits the Fiat 500’s top speed to 50mph (down from 93mph) and turns off the air conditioning. These extreme measures will be useful in an emergency when you really need to eke out every last mile to reach a charging point.

So, the Fiat 500 is now an electric city car, but we think you’ll agree it’s a good one provided you don’t need lots of space or expect the last word in interior quality. If you just love the looks, then watch our full video review above for a closer look or head to our deals page.