Whilst the little Fiat 500 is presently only available with an all-electric powertrain, reports have surfaced that the Italian marque will soon offer the scamp with a gasoline-powered engine as well – potentially as early as the 2026 calendar year.
To be clear, this was always in the hopper, if unofficially. Even though the present model was introduced as an electric-only city car, the specter of an IC powertrain was never off the table – nor should it have been. The pint-sized rascal has always been the right shape and dimension to accept an entertaining gasser mill, preferably one with a roarty exhaust. We’re not convinced that’ll happen with this iteration, since it’s a hybrid powertrain which is intended to be slotted under the hood, but we remain hopeful.
Just like we remain hopeful the hybrid will be offered on this side of the pond once it begins production a couple of years from now. At present, the 500e, shown above, is a not-cheap EV city car, priced in the mid-$30s with a 42-kWh battery providing about 150 miles of driving range on a full charge. This makes the car something of a limited-use case for many customers, though there’s no doubt plenty of city dwellers will find these stats to fit their needs. A dose of Italian style doesn’t hurt, either. La dolce vita, baby.
Adding a hybrid option to the 500 hatchback would certainly broaden its appeal, both at home and in international markets. We will observe the general quiet backtracking of some brands on their commitments to be wholly EV by the end of this decade, of which Fiat is one, having uttered such a declaration a few years ago. Whether that sticks remains to be seen.
The model regularly outperforms in European markets compared to America, for reasons which should be blindingly obvious. Through the first quarter of 2024, the entire Fiat brand enjoyed just 154 sales in America, working out to just 0.05 percent of total Stellantis volume during that quarter. Not 5 percent, not 0.5, but 0.05 – that’s five one-hundredths of a single percent. In other words, the entire brand accounted for what would otherwise be qualified as a rounding error.
I shall now link a new ad for the Fiat 500e because Giancarlo Esposito is cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZR_BEXgPV0
[Image: Fiat]
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