Fiat has reinvented the ever-popular 500 as a bigger, plusher, and electric-only city car for its next generation. Una buona idea?

It has its global reveal at the beginning of March … then ‘you-know-what’ happened and production slowed.

But now, Fiat’s electric 500 is on the streets of Europe and the UK, and faces competition from the likes of the Honda e and Mini electric.

It’s the first city car with level 2 autonomous driving, and the first FCA car equipped with the new revolutionary UConnect 5 infotainment system.

The lithium-ion batteries with a capacity of 42 kWh give the new 500 a range of up to 320 km in the WLTP cycle. The fast charger can also charge the battery to 80 per cent in just 35 minutes.

At this stage, Fiat New Zealand has no plans to sell the Fiat 500 electric here.

So, what’s it like? Here are comments from some motoring writers.

Top Gear

“It’s a posh and style-led little electric hatch, like a Honda e. Unlike with a Mini Electric or DS 3 Crossback, there’s no combustion version.

You do get one significant option which none of those cars offer. A colossal fabric sunroof that opens waaaay back and even drops the rear window. Since your EV is good for city skies, why not enjoy some of that sky yourself?

With all this underskin change, and no bulky engine/gearbox to accommodate, they could have made the new 500 any shape they darned well pleased. Fiat Group’s studios worldwide got the chance to submit ideas for a complete design reinvention. After all that, in the end Fiat settled on familiarity: a retromodernised iteration of a 1957 shape.

Why front-drive? Since they were starting from scratch, they could have done a rear-motor/RWD job like the Honda e. But Fiat argues that FWD is what people are used to. For the same reason, the electric motor’s accelerator calibration is much like a petrol, and the behaviour in bends is familiar too. Why’s the charge port on the right-rear wing? That’s where you put in petrol. The canvas roof is a broadly similar idea to the existing 500’s, stretched between metal side rails.

So, yeah, it’s a Fiat 500, just as the Mini Electric is a Mini. Whereas a Honda e is to an almost absurd extent not a Honda Jazz.”

Driving Electric

“The Fiat 500 is up there with the Mini when it comes to retro-styled small cars. Just like its major rival, the Italian car was reinvented for the 21st century, and now both are embracing electrification. 

But looks aside, this new 500 is a genuinely talented small electric car. It’s got an unbeatable image, a smart interior and loads of on-board technology. Plus, it’s fun to drive, will do nearly 200 miles on a charge and can top up using some of the latest rapid chargers.

The elegant design continues inside, with a slim two-spoke steering wheel, a circular instrument pod containing a seven-inch digital display, plus a larger 10.25-inch infotainment screen. The latter makes another nod to the 500's past, as it sits atop the centre of the dashboard, where the rear-view mirror was mounted in the 1960s original.

This third-generation 500 has more space up front than its predecessor, thanks to being wider and offering more headroom. The latest Fiat UConnect infotainment system works well.

Good news for front-seat occupants, then, but it's still a tight squeeze for anyone bigger than a toddler in the back and the boot remains very small, at just 185 litres.

Practicality isn’t its strong suit, then, but if you can live with the small boot and cramped rear seats, this new Fiat 500 is much more than a style-focused one-trick pony. It might be 12 months late to the 'fashionable small electric car' party, but it does just enough to trump its city-car rivals when it comes to all-round appeal.”

Auto Car UK

“The debut of the electric Fiat 500 was always going to seem more poignant than the arrival of a similar-size new-shape electric rival. Not because it was necessarily better but because of the implications that its arrival would hold for the 500 franchise, Fiat’s only truly successful model range, globally speaking.

Since 2007, Fiat has made an impressive sales success of its 3.5-metre-long baby, continuing to sell cars in big numbers more than a decade beyond the original car’s debut and proving conclusively that buyers still heartily approve of a design style that first appeared with the tiny, rear-engined Cinquecento classic 60 years ago.

When you first clap eyes on the 500 EV, it’s evident Fiat has done as much as possible to lift the model’s quality image, doubtless to counteract the modern trend towards tiny profit margins for small cars and better emulate the Mini’s ability to justify relatively strong prices.

The paint is lustrous, the panel fit and detailing (flush door handles, intricate wheel styles, cute body details, technical light designs) are all impressive.”

Carwow

“The 500 is designed to spend the bulk of its life in the city, so it is extremely light to drive. You can twirl the steering using one finger, so great is the assistance, and the turning circle is tiny, which obviously helps when parking.

Talking of parking, it’s as easy as you’d expect, because all versions of the 500 have rear parking sensors fitted as standard. Top-spec 500s add a rear parking camera and front sensors, to make matters even simpler.

However, while the steering is light, the rest of the car isn’t, which means the suspension has to be quite firm to keep everything under control. The downside of this is that the ride is decidedly fidgety over typical UK urban roads, but the upside is that body roll is minimal when you’re going a bit more quickly. Nevertheless, weight is the enemy of fun, and the 500 definitely feels a bit too lardy to be truly agile.

The powertrain has that typical EV instant responsiveness in town, so feels properly nippy off the line. Even when you get on to faster roads, such as dual carriageways, there’s plenty of power in reserve for overtaking.”