Why we ran it: This hi-vis EV could be the future of hot hatches. Should we be excited?
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Life with an Abarth 500e: Final report
Pumped-up Fiat EV departs in a blaze of colour. Glory, too?
The story around Abarth’s first electric car has changed quite substantially since we took delivery just a few months ago.
When this warmed-up Fiat 500e was launched, the electric hot hatch segment was barely in existence, and those cars that were on offer were much bigger, more family-focused propositions like the Cupra Born and Smart #1 Brabus.
But since then, Mini has come to market with the Cooper SE, the Renault 5-based Alpine A290 is inbound and Volkswagen is working on an electric follow-up to the Polo GTI.
And just a few weeks ago, it emerged that Stellantis was pausing production of the Fiat and Abarth 500e, because it simply couldn’t find homes for all the EVs that Turin was pumping out. That isn’t only a Fiat problem, of course, but it does raise questions about the ultimate desirability of this tiny, short-legged and relatively costly proposition.
In light of all those developments, it will be as annoying to you as it is to me that after several months and a few thousand miles at the helm, I still haven’t quite arrived at a prevailing judgement on the Abarth 500e.
On a purely objective basis, it’s easily done — and of course we rate cars conclusively every week in our reviews section.
According to the criteria applied there, I can tell you exactly how good this silent but violent supermini really is: it’s pretty fun to drive and looks brilliant, but its interior is a bit basic, it has a short range and it’s very expensive, resulting in an overall rating of three and a half stars.
But that judgement, based as it is on cold hard stats and rational comparisons, can’t really account for the influence of subjectivity and The story around Abarth’s first electric car has changed quite substantially since we took delivery just a few months ago.
When this warmed-up Fiat 500e was launched, the electric hot hatch segment was barely in existence, and those cars that were on offer were much bigger, more family-focused propositions like the Cupra Born and Smart #1 Brabus.
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Just another over priced EV T-T
The Autocar long term fleet seems to be littered with cars that nobody actually buys.
Seriously who is going to spend £40k on a local runabout with a bit of extra pep? A quick glance at a popular used car website shows the real value of this little fun machine!
Maybe if this car was half the price and half the weight I'd be a little more excited.
Like too many EVs, it is still too expensive, and it's not alone in rapiod depreciation. I love the concpet but for this price it needs more performance and range.
Regarding the price, it's too high but I suppose has to be higher than the fiat, and that is probably so high because EVs are expensive and it's on a new bespoke platform that currently nothing else shares, so hasn't yet got economies of scale?
Maybe when they replace the ice 500 with the hybrid based on the EV platform and do the same with the panda, the price will come down? It'd be great if stellantis used the platform as well, but that's doubtful as all the other stellantis brands abandoned city cars because they're too expensive to build now and impossible to make a profit on.
Love to know what profit fiat actually make on these and if it is minimal.
All that aside, if I could afford one, I'd definitely have one and am looking forward to read further views on this long term test, especially regarding how the abarth stacks up against the fiat.