2024 FIAT 500e

To be honest, we all needed this. There aren’t enough affordable electric cars right now. We could have been all snarky and talked about how Fiat doesn’t seem to have done much in the last few years, at least not in the United States. Oops, looks like we just have. But seriously, for a young city-dweller or a student in a college town who wants to embrace the electric future at a reasonable cost, the choices are few. So we’re glad that Fiat has reintroduced the 500e.

We’ve spent hundreds of hours driving and evaluating the current collection of subcompact all-electric cars.

It’s a fresh generation of Fiat 500e EV making its debut in North America. It’s larger than its predecessor, which was discontinued about five years ago. To us, the 500e is new, but this model is already out in other parts of the world and Fiat says it’s a big seller.

Chances are that a cheaper model may join the lineup after a while, and maybe even a sporty Abarth version. Fiat also includes either a home charger or public charging credits through Free2move Charge.

For some context, the 2024 Nissan Leaf is priced from $28K. The Mini Cooper SE Electric Hardtop 2-Door starts at $31K.

The new 500e has one electric motor generating 118 horsepower and 162 lb-ft of torque — not a huge amount, but this is a small and relatively light car. Fiat reckons it will go from standstill to 60 mph in 8.5 seconds, which is on the slower side for an EV but about the same or quicker than most gas-powered subcompact cars. We’re happy to report the 500e will feature a one-pedal driving mode, though, where acceleration and braking can be controlled most of the time by how much the driver’s right foot flexes on the go pedal. Only sharper stops will require hitting the brake pedal. To make pedestrians aware of the 500e’s presence, the car has an acoustic vehicle alert system that “sings” a song. We’re not expecting an especially smooth ride in such a short car. Standard safety features include forward collision warning with automatic emergency braking and pedestrian detection.

The new 500e has seating for four. From what we’ve seen so far, there’s plenty of plastic in the cabin — but let’s remember the price. This is a subcompact hatchback, so rear legroom isn’t great: 29.5 inches is about as tight as it gets. Those seats fold down to expand the cargo area. As mentioned above, this generation is bigger than before, which felt small even for adults of average size.

Like a lot of electric cars, the new 500e has a digital instrument cluster (a 7-inch version here), plus an infotainment screen taking pride of place on the dashboard — a 10.25-inch item. Wireless phone integration is standard in this initial (RED) trim level (which also includes a red dashboard), as is wireless charging.

Retro design is alive and well and going electric. This new 500e still manages to evoke the original Fiat 500 from the late 1950s. We think it’s charming. The (RED) version relaunching the 500e is, unsurprisingly, red.

Fiat says the new 500e has an estimated maximum range of 149 miles. Not the kind of figure we’d expect to see this far into the evolution of electric vehicles, but this one’s cheaper than most and that’s plenty of range for a lot of drivers. And the old model could only cover 100 miles, so this is progress of a sort. To compare, the most affordable (though soon to be axed) Nissan Leaf has the same range as the 500e. The Mini Cooper SE Electric Hardtop 2 Door can only manage 114 miles.

The battery can go from almost empty to 80% in 35 minutes using a DC fast charger (which isn’t bad), or take on 31 miles of range in five minutes. With a 240-volt home charger, a full replenishment takes four hours and 15 minutes.

The capacity of the new 500e’s lithium-ion battery is rated at 42 kilowatt-hours (kWh). Like the rest of the car, that’s on the small side.

4-Year/50,000-Mile Warranty

Fiat covers its vehicles with a 4-year/50,000-mile basic and powertrain warranty. That’s longer basic coverage than the more common 3-year/36,000-mile basic warranty, but the powertrain warranty falls short of the typical 5-year/60,000-mile warranty. We expect the 500e’s battery to have a warranty of eight years or 100,000 miles.

Safety Ratings

No outside entity has crash tested the Fiat 500e. However, the advanced safety technologies include automatic emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, Drowsy Driver Detection, and adaptive cruise control. Among the other advanced systems are lane-departure warning, rear park assist, and traffic sign recognition.