Abarth 600e long-term test: report 2

The car Abarth 600e Scorpionissima Run by Mark Pearson, used cars editor

Why it’s here To see if a small electric sports SUV can cut the mustard against combustion-engined rivals

Needs to It’ll need to be fun, but it’ll also need to dispatch commuting, work and family life without any range anxiety issues and cope with a wide variety of everyday duties

Miles covered 4499 Price £39,885 Best price £35,995 Price as tested £39,885 Official range 199 miles Test range 150 miles

3 December 2025 – Sound and vision

My Abarth 600e is the kind of car you might buy with your heart rather than your head, and, as such, it needs to offer plenty of showroom sizzle to entice the prospective purchaser.

Have no fear, it does. If you’re not seduced at first sight by its paintwork and fancy rear spoiler, there are several design fripperies to whet the appetite. 

For example, there is an abundance of scorpions. Abarth has always used the scorpion as its symbol, not only because its founder, Carlo Abarth, was born in November, but also because it signifies grit, strength and power. There are scorpions to be found on the steering wheel, dash and kick plate, and externally on the front, sides and rear of the car, as well as on the top of the rear spoiler and on the centre caps of the eye-catching 20in alloy wheels. 

In fact, those wheels aren’t all they seem, because they have been deliberately styled to look like centre-lock wheels, such as might be used in racing, when in fact the distinctive yellow centre cap conceals nothing more than a more normal four-stud wheel design underneath, another neat bit of sizzle.  

You want more? My 600e also has an external and artificial sound generator that produces a noise akin to the exhaust note of a regular petrol-engined car. It rises in volume as the car accelerates and then settles down at a cruise, and there is a convenient control on the touchscreen for turning it on and off. 

You could argue that one of the advantages of an electric car is the absence of engine noise, so why would you want to add it in? Well, here, you have the choice, and of course, the noise adds a sporting element. It's rather like the simulated manual gearboxes you can now get in some electric cars. One of the other virtues of an electric car is that it gets rid of the old-fashioned, multi-ratio gearbox, but some keener drivers still welcome that feeling of interaction you get from changing gear yourself. 

In truth, the generator makes quite a subdued noise and sounds more like the rumblings of a hungry passenger’s stomach than the sonorous belching of a highly tuned V8. I suppose it’ll be useful to warn pedestrians of my presence, and, viewed more broadly, it is definitely one of those elements of sizzle that’ll help sell the car. 

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