Fiat 500e review: Electric Italian city car is cute, but has some faults

Italian automaker Fiat has been selling a fully electric version of its iconic 500 city car overseas since early 2020. The 500e is now available in Australian Fiat dealerships and joins the Mini Cooper Electric as one of the smallest electric vehicles you can buy.

The Fiat 500e price tag is not small though, as it comes in a single highly specified La Prima variant which starts at $52,500 before on-road costs, almost double the $27,220 starting price of a petrol Fiat 500. 

Buyers who are keen for more performance and attention seeking looks can opt for the even more expensive Abarth 500e, starting at $58,900 plus on-road costs for the Turismo version or $60,500 for the Scorpionissima.

La Prima 500e variants come with a 42 kWh battery pack that offers up to 311 km of WLTP driving range. Overseas markets have access to more affordable 500e variants with a smaller 24 kWh battery as well as a convertible version but these are not available here.

Fiat manufactures the 500e in Turin, Italy and proudly advertise this fact in several places throughout the car such as the bottom of the interior door handles and Turin city skyline featured on the wireless charging pad. 

When the opportunity to borrow a Fiat 500e came up, I was excited to test it out for a week and see what this little city car was like to live with. The 500e I tested came with the optional Ocean Green metallic paint.

Cute design, limited storage space

I’m generally not one to call things cute, but it’s hard not to use the word when describing the Fiat 500e. From its cute little size and rounded exterior styling to things like the miniature parcel shelf in the boot, cute is the first thing that pops into your head when looking at this car.

Small and cute doesn’t bode well for storage space though, with a tiny 185 L of storage in the boot with the rear seats up. In this configuration you can’t fit much more than three carry-on size bags in the boot.

The 500e is based on a dedicated EV platform and is slightly bigger than the petrol 500, although there is no front trunk (frunk) as this is where the electric motor, inverter and on-board charger are situated. Boot space can be expanded to a decent 550 L by folding the rear seats down if you don’t need to carry more than one passenger.

Decent interior and infotainment

The 500e interior is fairly well equipped with a 7 inch digital instrument cluster and 10.25 inch central touchscreen that supports wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Both screens were responsive and sharp, including the reversing camera.

I found the built-in navigation system a bit clunky to use, but wireless Android Auto worked well apart from draining the battery on my phone quickly. This appears to be an issue specific to certain Pixel phones and not the Fiat 500e or Android Auto though.

Physical buttons for controlling the air-conditioning are located below the central touchscreen along with a single USB-A port and wireless charging pad. Another USB-A charging port as well as a USB-C and 12 V outlet are located in the centre console.

Similar to exterior storage, the 500e has limited storage space in door bins and a centre console that fits a single bottle, cup and a few small items. In front of the centre console is where you’ll find a volume knob for the car audio as well as the drive mode selector.

One quirk of the Fiat 500e are the audio controls that are mounted on the back side of the steering wheel, with no indication or labels showing what they do. By trial and error I found the left hand side skips backwards or forwards and changes audio source, while the right hand side mutes audio and changes volume.

When it comes to seating, the front is roomy enough with only two people on board. My two early teenage kids managed to squeeze into the back seat and didn’t mind the 500e for short trips. However, their feedback was that they wouldn’t want to spend more than an hour or so back there.

The seating position was higher than expected in the 500e, I was sitting slightly above drivers of other hatchbacks and sedans even with the driver’s seat at its lowest position. Front seats are manually adjusted with no height adjustment for the passenger, and feel a bit flat and unsupportive on longer drives. 

Seats are made from Fiat’s synthetic Eco Leather and feature FIAT stitching and also heating for the front two. Aside from the seats and armrests, the rest of the interior was made of hard plastics including the weave pattern on the dash which seems like it would be soft until you touch it.

There is a fixed glass sunroof over the front two seats of the 500e which makes the cabin feel light and airy. You will need the retractable shade that pulls across as the tint on the glass wasn’t strong enough to cut out glare on bright sunny days.

Zippy and easy to park, although bumpy at times 

The Fiat 500e feels like a zippy little car, easily getting up to highway speeds with power left to overtake when necessary. It feels most at home around the city though, where its small size is an advantage and light steering also makes for easy parking. 

According to specifications, the electric motor produces 87 kW of power which is plenty for a car weighing 1365 kg. When accelerating hard I actually observed more power, with up to 96 kW flowing to the motor via a nice display of real-time energy consumption on the central touchscreen. 

This display also confirmed that the brake pedal in the 500e blends regenerative braking with friction brakes as necessary to slow you down.

Three driving modes are available in the Fiat 500e, Normal, Range and Sherpa. Normal behaves like an automatic internal combustion car with very weak regenerative braking and creep mode, although automatic hold can still be enabled to hold the car still once stopped.

Range mode enables full one pedal driving, bringing the car to a complete stop when you lift off the accelerator and holding it still until you accelerate again. Sherpa mode is meant for those situations where you need to eke out slightly more range, turning off the air-conditioning, limiting power and top speed to 80 km/h.

Fiat’s one pedal driving implementation needs some tuning, especially at low speeds and driving on slopes where I found it particularly jerky. For example, when coming to a stop the friction brakes are jammed on while the car is still travelling a few km/h which leads to a sudden stop. 

Starting off on a slope requires more accelerator pressure than anticipated to release the friction brakes which leads to a sudden and jerky take off as well. This felt terrible and unsafe when reversing down my steep driveway, so much so that I had to revert back to Normal drive mode each time.

Suspension is another aspect of the Fiat 500e that needs improvement in my opinion. It can be harsh over bumps and bounces occupants around unless you take extra care over speed bumps and uneven surfaces.

In terms of efficiency, the Fiat 500e was OK but not overly impressive for a relatively light EV of this size.

During city driving I observed energy usage of 14.2 kWh/100 km, and for a 171 km highway loop the figure was 15.8 kWh/100 km. With 37 kWh of usable energy in the battery pack this equates to real world range between 235 km and 260 km depending on your driving situation.

Charging and ownership

The Fiat 500e maximum charge rates are 85 kW DC and 11 kW AC via a 3-phase wallbox or 7 kW AC with single phase. The charge port is located on the rear driver’s side of the car so take this into account if you intend to use kerbside chargers often.

Regarding inclusions, the 500e only comes with a mode 3 type-2 cable, no portable EVSE or wallbox so you will need to purchase something separately if you plan to charge at home.

Fiat’s warranty only covers the 500e for 3 years or 150,000 km although the high voltage battery pack receives a fairly standard 8 years or 160,000 km coverage. Servicing is required every 12 months or 15,000 km and costs $250 per service.

Conclusions

Despite its cute looks and zippy driving experience, the Fiat 500e will only appeal to a niche audience. The potential set of buyers is further limited by the expensive step up from the petrol Fiat 500 to the electric 500e at $52,500 before on-road costs.

Hopefully Fiat can improve the smoothness of the one pedal drive implementation and iron out the bumps in the 500e suspension, then this cute little Italian will be even more appealing. 

The lack of storage space in a car this size is to be expected, and if you are considering the 500e as a second small car or don’t intend to use the rear seats much then storage space should be fine.

Key specifications for the Fiat 500e are below.

Tim Eden

Tim has 20 years experience in the IT industry including 14 years as a network engineer and site reliability engineer at Google Australia. He is an EV and renewable energy enthusiast who is most passionate about helping people understand and adopt these technologies.