The new Fiat 500 has been revealed as an all-electric city car alternative to the VW e-UP and Smart ForTwo EQ. Read on for more…

New Fiat 500 electric car revealed

42kWh battery

199-mile WLTP range

0-60 in less than 9 seconds

85kW fast-charging standard

All-new infotainment system

High-tech cruise control

First 4-seat electric convertible

La Prima first editions on sale

Cost from £29,000

New electric Fiat 500 design

You’d be forgiven for thinking this new electric Fiat 500 was the old petrol-powered model. It gets the same curvy silhouette as the old car and even the alloy wheel designs look very similar. The front bumper has a new upturned grille design and the headlights are now split into two halves – a lower semicircle and a curved strip that shines out through slits in the bonnet.

The new electric Fiat 500 looks pretty similar to the old car.

The electric Fiat 500 ditches the old petrol-powered car’s exhaust pipe and gets a new pair of brake lights with a filled-in design instead of the old car’s hollow square shape. There are a few extra chrome badges on La Prima first edition models, too – under the rear windows and above the front wheels, and you can get convertible models with a special roof covered in retro Fiat logos.

As before, you’ll be able to get the Fiat 500 as a hard-top hatchback or a convertible.

New electric Fiat 500C convertible

The Fiat 500C will also come as a pure-electric car for the first time. In fact, Fiat claims it’s the first-ever purely electric four-seater convertible ever to go on sale. It comes with the same motor, batteries and revised styling as the standard hatchback, but will cost a few thousand pounds more across the range.

The new electric Fiat 500’s interior will come with many personalisation options.

New electric Fiat 500 interior

The new electric Fiat 500‘s interior has been completely redesigned. Sure, the big round instrument cluster in front of the steering wheel has been carried over, but this now comes with a 7-inch digital screen instead of a massive speedometer like the old car. There’s a large 10-inch infotainment touchscreen on the dashboard too, and there’s a storage tray where the old model’s gear lever used to be.

This large touchscreen should be much easier to use than the old car’s infotainment system.

As with the old 500, Fiat will offer a wide range of personalisation options with the new electric 500, so don’t worry if the rather dark, moody trims in these pictures aren’t to your taste. In fact, Fiat has already shown a taste of what’s to come with three unique personalised 500s designed by fashion houses Bvlgari, Kartell and Armani. Fancy indeed.

This dashboard comes exclusively on the Bvlgari-design one-off Fiat 500.

New Fiat 500 electric motor and batteries

The electric Fiat 500 comes with a 42kWh battery that can be recharged from empty to 80% full in as little as 35 minutes using an 85kW public fast charger. With its batteries brimmed, Fiat claims you can drive the new electric 500 for 199 miles. That’s been calculated using the new, stricter WLTP testing procedure, so you should be able to get reasonably close to that figure. You’ll also be able to add 30 miles of range with a brief five-minute charge using the fastest 85kWh charging option.

Fiat also supplies the electric 500 with a home-charging 3kWh wall-mounted box, but you can upgrade this to a faster-charging 7.4kWh box that’ll charge its batteries from empty in a little over six hours. Fiat has said that you’ll still be able to buy petrol and hybrid versions of the 500 as long as there’s public demand.

The electric Fiat 500’s 118hp motor should make it feel nippier than the old petrol-powered 500.

New Fiat 500 electric driving

The electric Fiat 500 comes with a 118hp electric motor so it’ll do 0-60mph in nine seconds. Sure, that’s not exactly hot-hatch speed, but it’ll blast from 0-30mph in around three seconds so it’ll certainly feel nippy in town. You’ll also be able to get it with advanced adaptive cruise control that’ll accelerate, brake and steer for you on motorways. It’ll also detect pedestrians and cyclists and can apply the brakes automatically to help prevent collisions.

The electric 500 also comes with three driving modes, called Normal, Range and Sherpa. Normal is what you’ll spend most of your time using, occasionally dipping into Range when you need to eke out a few extra miles between charges. Range mode also increases the amount of regenerative braking done by the motor, so you can pretty much drive the 500 using just the accelerator pedal; lifting your foot to bring the car to a stop. The Sherpa function limits the top speed to 50mph (down from 93mph) and turns off the air conditioning to help you reach the nearest charging point.

The new electric Fiat 500’s 199-mile range should be more than enough for regular city driving.

New Fiat 500 electric price and release date

You can buy the new electric Fiat 500 today, but you’re limited to a very high-spec ‘La Prima’ model. Fiat will only build 500 of these special edition cars and they cost from £29,000. You can expect a range of more affordable – but less snazzy-looking – cars to appear towards the end of 2020 and in 2021.

If you can’t wait until then, head over to our Fiat 500 review to check out the current petrol-powered model or read our list of the best electric cars on sale now.

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