The all-electric Fiat 500e has been very well received in Europe and it feels like the car has been optimised for urban electrification. Interestingly, Fiat drew inspiration from the green architecture created by Boeri in several locations around the world in its vision of a utopian city shown in the European launch advert for the all-electric new Fiat 500.
Given the takeover by Stellantis - Peugeot, Opel, Citroen, Jeep, Fiat and more - and the motoring landscape in Europe, it makes sense that Fiat goes electric. “We are exploring the territory of sustainable mobility for all: this is our greatest project. Between 2025 and 2030, our product line-up will gradually become electric-only,” said Francois. There’s already a confirmation that an even faster all-electric Abarth version is in development, which sounds exciting.
The Fiat 500e is not sold in South Africa yet, but impressively it’s the first vehicle from Fiat to be built as an electric car from the get-go, while still retaining its trademark cute city looks. It’s powered by a 42kWh battery and it develops 87kW and 200Nm. These amounts may not sound like much, but the 500e is the fastest non-Abarth yet with 0-100 in nine seconds. It features fast charging and you can get 85% of charge in just 35 minutes.
With Fiat going electric, yet falling under Stellantis, it’ll be interesting to see if the Peugeot/Citroen/Opel side of the business uses the Fiat 500e platform for future iterations of 108/C1, or will we see bigger Fiats use the electrified platforms from France?
For now, Fiat South Africa will continue to sell the internal combustion-engined versions of the 500 and 500 Cabriolet.
This article as originally published on Cars.co.za.
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