The adorable subcompact Fiat 500 was discontinued in the US for 2020, while it soldiered on in Europe with a sharp new generation that became firmly forbidden fruit. It was a bit of a surprise when Fiat brought this new 500 to the New York Auto Show, but now, we know why the automaker wanted us to see it.
Fiat has announced that it will bring the 500 back to the US market, albeit solely as an electric vehicle. The new Fiat 500e will mark its return to our amber waves of grain in the first quarter of 2024, so the car is still a ways away. And there are still other unanswered questions, like if there will be multiple trims or a different powertrain than what’s on offer in Europe.
In some overseas markets, the latest Fiat 500e comes with one of two powertrains. The more budget-oriented Action trim uses a small 24-kilowatt-hour battery with a 94-horsepower electric motor, which is good for approximately 115 miles of range by the European WLTP standard. A larger, 42-kWh battery is also available, which pairs with a 117-hp motor and boosts range to about 199 miles. American consumers tend to be obsessed with range, so it’s unclear if a larger battery could fit in the new 500e, or if we’ll just receive the more capacious of the two trims mentioned here.
As part of Fiat’s press conference at the LA Auto Show, where the automaker announced the 500e’s return to the US market, it showed off a trio of one-off concepts based on the idea of small-batch Italian craftsmanship. The concepts from Armani, Bvlgari and Kartell feature unique design elements with a focus on sustainability, and as you might expect, they look pretty boss.
Right now, the only vehicle that Fiat sells in the US is the compact 500X crossover, which starts under $30,000 and is a fair bit larger than the two-door 500. Fiat also used to sell the 500L, a larger multipurpose vehicle, but its dowdy looks and middling driving dynamics led to its eventual cancellation. The Fiat 124 Spider, a two-door sports coupe based on the Mazda MX-5 Miata, was discontinued at the same time as the 500L, at the end of the 2020 model year.
