Alex Hevesy/SlashGear
Perhaps surpassed only by the Volkswagen Beetle, the Fiat 500 is one of the most recognizable European cars to ever exist. It’s been in dozens of movies, video games, anime, and more, and is a bona fide automotive icon. Despite the fame, the Fiat has only shown its face in the United States for a few years, more recently from 2007 to 2019.
Now, for 2024 the 500 is back in the States, only with notably more electrons and dubbed the 500e. Stellantis (the parent company of Fiat) flew me down to Miami from my dreary and rainy Pennsylvanian home to check out Fiat’s electric only American Cinquecento.
Before I reveal how Fiat handled its return to America, I must first comment on the setting. Miami, for those who haven’t been and in the context of a press event, is a bizarre place. It almost didn’t feel like an actual functioning city and more like a video game world. It’s impossibly colorful, I saw six Lamborghinis over the course of a drive, and the food was great. Conversely, I was not used to the heat and subsequent humidity, and my rural sensibilities have apparently not evolved to cope with Miami’s unique way of handling traffic. It’s a different world down in Florida.
The Fiat returns to America
Alex Hevesy/SlashGear
The event started with a presentation from the Brand CEO of Fiat, Abarth, and DS, Olvier Francois. Aamir Ahmed, Fiat’s brand head for North America and Paolo Gribaldi, the 500e’s chief vehicle engineer also spoke about Fiat’s electrified return to the U.S.
Over the course of the presentation from Fiat, the details of the 500e began to take shape. Numbers wise, it sports a 117 horsepower single motor drivetrain paired with a 42 kWh battery that amounts to 149 miles of range. It starts at $32,500. From an aesthetic perspective, the 500e bills itself as the ultimate city car in terms of both convenience and stylistic sensibility. Fiat was clear to point out that the new 500e is a daily city commuter, not a range monster that you would expect from the likes of Lucid or a General Motors’ Ultium project. It’s for short jaunts out and about town, not for cross country sprints.
Sizing up the micro car
Alex Hevesy/SlashGear
To the presentation, Fiat also brought a first generation Fiat 500 straight out of late-1950s/early 1960s Italy in all of its pastel-colored glory. It would look comically small next to most cars, but managed to look absolutely adorable alongside to its electric 21st century counterpart. A first generation 500e, based on the Fiat 500 from 2007 to 2019 was also in attendance. Having never sat in one, I took the opportunity to look around the interior. Fiat’s first foray into electric vehicles for North America felt like sitting in the seat of a forklift, with a high seating position. I’m six-foot two and, although it wasn’t uncomfortable to sit in, it wasn’t a car I would like to live with.
Alex Hevesy/SlashGear
Next, was the main event: driving the new 500e. Being on the taller end, I was delighted that the 2024 500e’s interior was perfectly comfortable. I was in the car for roughly two hours total as a driver and a passenger and I never once felt cramped or uncomfortable. That’s a laudable effort on Fiat’s part. Without the burden of an internal combustion engine to cope with, Fiat managed to expand the interior in a way that feels genuinely roomy for such a small car. I was even able to fit in the back seats. Although it wasn’t a Maybach SUV by any stretch of the imagination, an adult could absolutely ride in the back of the 500e, provided said-ride wasn’t too long.
The 500e hits the streets
Alex Hevesy/SlashGear
The 500e is not fast, topping out at only 94 miles per hour according to Fiat, but it’s absolutely zippy. The low center of gravity and torque-y electric motor afforded to it by the EV drivetrain allow the little Fiat to scoot in and out of traffic with exactly zero drama. It’s, dare I say, really fun to drive. I was smiling the entire time I was behind the wheel, even when sitting in Miami traffic. It’s a downright joy, and Fiat absolutely nailed it in making a city car that isn’t miserable to drive. I live nowhere near a large city, and I have had difficulty with EV infrastructure in the past, but I even caught myself thinking “I could own one of these.” The 500e’s energy is infectious.
My co-driver and I got lost due to a little glitch with the 500e’s UConnect navigation system. I pulled over and instantly fit into a parking space on the side of the street without the need for parallel parking. You can fit it into practically any parking space bigger than a refrigerator. After some cajoling of the infotainment system and consulting the techpriests through a Google search of our destination, we zipped the 500e back into traffic seamlessly. Looking around at every Lamborghini Urus, Rolls-Royce Cullinan, or Aston Martin DBX that drove by, I thought that while those vehicles are several times more expensive, much faster, and gargantuan compared to the 500e, I was having much more fun behind the wheel of the Fiat than they were in command of their ultra-luxe land yachts.
Living with the Fiat
Alex Hevesy/SlashGear
During short stretches on open highways, I, much to Fiat’s credit, never felt like I would get vaporized by an errant Chevy Suburban changing lanes. At higher speeds, the 500e was as planted and solid as any other car on the road, despite being significantly smaller in every metric (except personality). As a fun little city car, the 500e is nothing short of excellent. I genuinely enjoyed every second behind the wheel. As a treat, the 500e plays a little orchestral musical piece when you hit 20 miles per hour. The piece is called “The Sound of 500e” and it was composed specifically for the car by Flavio Ibba-Marco Gualdi.
But with the good, comes the bad. Being a Stellantis product, it houses the UConnect infotainment system, which could prove to be a little obtuse at times. It wasn’t unbearable by any means, but it could certainly be less than reliable. To be fair to Stellantis and Fiat, the 500e is a brand new vehicle and I was one of the first people to ever drive it. Hopefully those bugs we experienced with the navigation system get sorted out soon. Apple CarPlay was still by far the best option for navigation and music needs.
A city-bound car
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Next is the 500e’s charging prowess. It’s not a fast charging car by any means, with a maximum speed of 85 kW. In 35 minutes, the battery can be charged from 0-85% per Fiat. A Level 2 charger as you’ll probably want at home takes six hours for a full charge. It’s strictly confined to the city with those metrics. Fiat also has no plans to integrate the 500e into Tesla’s Supercharger network, further limiting charging options.
149 miles of range also makes it one of the shortest range EVs on the North American market. For comparison, the outgoing Chevy Bolt can go upwards of 259 miles on a charge. The 500e is exactly a city car and nothing else. If you need to venture outside the confines of dense urban environments with lots of charging stations, the Fiat 500e cannot take you.
The first 500e available in the U.S. is the RED special edition made for the RED AIDS charity. Later in the third quarter of 2024, meanwhile, we’ll also get the “Inspired By” versions that include a more powerful JBL sound system, additional driver assistance features like adaptive cruise control and lane-keep assist, and a few more color choices. The “Inspired By” will retail for $36,000. I did not drive any of the upcoming versions of the 500e, although two Inspired By cars were present at the event.
A car that’s easy to root for
Alex Hevesy/SlashGear
I really liked the 2024 500e. It’s a fun car to drive and a delight to move in and around traffic. But I have no idea how sales will fare given its very limited use case scenario and relatively high price compared to other existing city cars or compacts. Given America’s love affair with all things crossover SUV, it’s tough to see a future where the 500e takes a significant share of the market, although I am decidedly not a fortune-teller.
I’m rooting for the 500e’s return to the shores of Uncle Sam and huge American cities. In the city, a vehicle like the 500e makes a lot of sense and the 149 miles of range will likely be more than adequate for a day’s various errands and stops. I would love to see a car like the 500e take hold of the roads, and I’m sure traffic would improve if it did. I’m just not entirely convinced the American car buying public–or the existing EV infrastructure–is going to be as welcoming.
