Fiat 500e review

If it’s retro charm you’re after, not many new cars come close to the chic Fiat 500e. With looks harking back to a Fifties classic, this all-electric reimagining of the Fiat 500 (Cinquecento in Italy) turns heads like few other cars in its price bracket.

This electric 500 is available with an official range of up to 199 miles (a new petrol hybrid version is on the way). Fiat also sells a more affordable version aimed at buyers who want to keep costs down and don't plan to travel too far from home. It has a smaller battery and offers up to 118 miles of range.

If you go for the version with the bigger battery, you can choose between a regular hardtop roof or the 500e Cabrio convertible version, which has a retractable canvas roof.

Fiat 500e video review

So, is it among the best electric cars? Well, most electric cars are pricier and bigger, but they include the Mini Cooper Electric, Peugeot e-208 and Renault 5. Or if performance is your thing, you can find out more about the glitzier and quicker hot hatch lookalike in our Abarth 500e review.

What’s new?

- August 2025 - Fiat announces ‘E-Grant’, effectively discounting the 500e by £1500
- February 2023 - (RED) special edition announced, coming with a red seat details, and a red dashboard and door mirrors

The cheapest Fiat 500e comes with a 24kWh battery and a 94bhp electric motor. It's not our favourite version, though – the official 0-62mph time of 9.5 seconds is relatively sluggish by modern electric car standards. While it’s quick and responsive enough in stop-start traffic, it runs out of puff once you head towards motorway speed limits.

More importantly, the 24kWh battery gives the car an official range of just 115 miles, and based on our drives of it so far, you're unlikely to get near that in real-world driving conditions. That's one of the shortest official electric ranges around, and far less than many rivals like the entry-level Mini Cooper Electric (190 miles) can travel.

The Fiat 500e has a drive mode selector, allowing you to switch from a normal mode to Sherpa, which ekes out as much battery range as possible and limits the top speed to 50mph. You can only switch modes when the vehicle is stationary, which we find awkward.

The 24kWh version is available only in hardtop form, so if you want the 500 Cabrio, you’ll need to upgrade to the larger 42kWh battery.

Still, we’d recommend the larger battery even if you want a hardtop car because, for a reasonable price premium, you get a much longer official range between charges (186 to 199 miles depending on the trim) and zippier acceleration. In our tests, the more powerful 117bhp electric motor fitted to this version managed to get the car to 60mph from a standstill in 8.0 seconds. The acceleration is instant so it feels even faster than it actually is. 

The 500e is built for the city so it has a tight turning circle and is great for whizzing along narrow streets or darting away from traffic lights. It doesn’t lean much, even through tight turns, and has lots of grip. There's not much feedback from its super-light steering though.

The ride is fairly choppy but not uncomfortably so. While the Peugeot e-208, Renault 5 and other softer rivals feel calmer and more settled along faster roads, the 500 is upset less than most small cars by potholes and expansion joints.

The more powerful, 42kWh battery version of the car is a better companion on the motorway – which is handy because its range makes longer journeys a genuine possibility. Mind you, it's noisy at faster speeds with lots of wind noise. The Renault 5 and the e-208 are much quieter.

The fabric-roofed Fiat 500e Cabrio does an even worse job of isolating you from the outside world, although when you fold down the top you're not blown around as much as you might imagine. That’s partly because of the "air cap" at the top of the windscreen, which diverts air over occupants' heads.

“Worried whether your remaining range is enough to get you to your next charge? Activating the 500e's Sherpa mode tries to maximise the range you have left. I think it’s useful to have, but it does limit your top speed to 50mph.” – Doug Revolta, Head of Video

You sit fairly high up in the Fiat 500e (certainly higher than in a Peugeot e-208). The driver's seat provides enough support and all versions now get reach adjustment on the steering wheel.

There's not much space to rest your left foot and you'll need to go for a high trim level if you want seat-height adjustment and a central armrest.

You do get a good view of the road ahead and to the sides though. Over-the-shoulder visibility isn’t brilliant, but all trims have rear parking sensors and a reversing camera as standard. Only the range-topping La Prima and Giorgio Armani versions get standard LED headlights for better visibility at night.

Given its retro exterior styling, you might be surprised by the relatively modern and conventional look of the Fiat 500e's interior. The ergonomics are good, and while there are not as many upmarket, soft-touch materials as in an e-208 or Renault 5, everything feels solidly screwed together.

Every 500e comes with a 10.3in infotainment touchscreen with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone mirroring. Apart from one or two small icons on the main homepage, the infotainment system's interface is easy to use and the screen responds quickly when you press it. It's much better than the e-208's system.

“Given the fashionable image of the Fiat 500, it seems a shame to me that the interior colour scheme is quite limited.” – Oliver Young, Reviewer

You’ll have seen countless Fiat 500s on the road over the past few years so you’ll be well aware that this isn’t a big car. True, this 500e electric car version is bigger than the Fiat 500 Hybrid but there are still no rear doors and even short adults won’t want to sit in the back for long. 

If you view it as an occasional four-seater, though, the 500e is perfectly fit for purpose – both in hardtop and convertible forms. 

Front stowage space is surprisingly good, with a large tray halfway up the dashboard that’s the perfect size for your phone. On higher-spec versions the tray has a wireless phone-charging pad.

The door pockets are quite small but there’s a long but narrow cubby between the front seats. On La Prima and Giorgio Armani versions the cubby has a lid to hide your valuables.

If you go for the hardtop 500e, the hatchback tailgate lifts to reveal a small boot space that can squeeze just three carry-on suitcases below the parcel shelf – that’s more than the two you’ll fit in a Mini Cooper Electric but a Renault 5 can fit in four.

Access to the boot is restricted in the convertible version because the boot lid is much smaller (more like a saloon car’s). This version could take only two carry-on cases. On most versions the rear seat back is in one piece but La Prima and Giorgio Armani cars have a two-piece seat back, which folds down in a 50/50 split.

“As it’s such a small car with a small boot, it would be handy if there was some extra storage under the 500e's bonnet for the charging cables, but I'm afraid that's not the case.” – Doug Revolta, Head of Video

While the small battery versions of the Fiat 500e are cheaper to buy than many rivals, including the Mini Cooper Electric and Renault 5, they have a significantly shorter range, as well as bigger smaller and less practical. Bigger battery versions of the 500e do better on range but are not that competitively compared with the many small electric alternatives out there now.

With the smaller 24kWh battery, your 500 will be able to accept a maximum charging rate of just 50kW, meaning a 0-80% top up for the tiny battery will take about half an hour. Most rivals have bigger batteries that can be topped up in the same time or quicker. A full charge (0-100%) takes four hours from a 7kW home EV charger.

The 42kWh battery allows you to top up the battery at charging speeds of up to 85kW. That means a 0-80% charge of the much larger battery takes barely any longer than it does in the 24kWh version. A full charge at home will take around six hours and 45 minutes.

The entry-level trim (which doesn’t have a name) gets automatic air-conditioning, the 10.3in infotainment touchscreen, a 7in digital driver's display and 16in alloys. The Red trim costs the same but gets lots of red styling touches.

La Prima trim is only available with the bigger battery. It gets a panoramic sunroof, heated front seats, 17in alloy wheels, an upgraded sound system and a height-adjustable driver’s seat but pushes up the price up quite a lot. Likewise, the range-topping Giorgio Armani edition gets a few styling flourishes but is more expensive than a whole host of better small electric cars.

The Fiat 500e achieved an overall four-star safety rating when it was tested by Euro NCAP in 2021. That's the same rating as the Peugeot e-208 and Renault 5, but the Mini Cooper Electric was awarded five stars. All 500e trims include lane-keeping assistance, traffic-sign recognition and automatic emergency braking (AEB).

The 500e didn't feature in our 2024 What Car? Reliability Survey but Fiat as a brand did, and finished in 25th place out of 31 manufacturers. Renault and Peugeot did much better.

“As cool as it might be having the great Giorgio Armani’s name attached to your Fiat 500e, that version has a steep price and limited extra equipment so I find it very difficult to recommend.” – Doug Revolta, Head of Video

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