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Payne: Livin’ large in the Fiat 500e clown car
Posted by Talbot Payne on April 12, 2024
Miami — The circus is in town. My 6’9” media colleague Brian Armstead and I emerged from our wee Fiat 500e to stares in downtown Miami.
Dude, you’re 6’5”, how do you two fit in a Flea-at?
Quite comfortably, thanks for asking. With a tall roof, peppy electric motor and plenty of room to splay our legs where the driveline used to be, the 500e is a modern clown car. Fiat has it right. Big brands are falling all over themselves these days to sell mainstream buyers on electric cars. But electrics are niche vehicles for premium shoppers. Tesla Model 3/Y is for techies, Mustang Mach-E for pony car enthusiasts, Hummer EV for off-roaders.
Fiat 500e is for fun.
The wee hatchback might as well have a key chain link on it. This is one adorable accessory. Dressed in red, the cheerful clown scurried through the streets with big LED eyes and a fashionable electric motor under the hood. What, no red nose?
Of course, fashion these days attracts politics, and the Fiat is perfumed with a marketing campaign promising to save the world. Cloying climate celebrities Bono and Jennifer Lopez have added their names to the circus, and I can’t think of anything more tiresome than dinner with jet-setting millionaire musicians lecturing Americans on how to save polar bears.
Ditch them at their private airport and take the 500e for a spin around the Big Top. This clown car is a treat.
Designed for metropolitan streets, our red 500e tester squirted out of stoplights in downtown Miami, its electric motor smooth as an Atlantic breeze. At 20 mph, external music composed by Italian composers Flavio Ibba and Marco Gualdi played to alert pedestrians it was coming. Seriously! Back up, and an electronic safety alert hums. Miami Nice.
The 2024 Fiat 500e has the latest Stellantis Uconnect 5 system for infotainment. Henry Payne, The Detroit News
With a single-speed electric transmission, the Italian is easy to drive. Heck, you don’t even need to use your left foot. Select SHERPA mode and use the motor for regenerative braking.
At an A1A intersection on South Beach, I executed a U-turn on a dime. Zoot! Thirty miles an hour went by in 3 seconds, making intersections a breeze to cross. Refreshingly, Fiat doesn’t strain to advertise the car’s long distance driving abilities (ICEs embarrass EVs on refueling time). The pup will scamper around metro neighborhoods for up to 160 miles in SHERPA mode (149 miles in RANGE mode) before its tongue hangs out.
“Put it in the garage next to your Jeep Grand Cherokee gas car,” says Fiat North American Chief Aamir Ahmed (nice plug for another Stellantis brand there). I drove 140 miles from Naples to Miami and back this year in a gas sedan, a task that would be painful in a 500e. Ditto Detroit to Grand Rapids. Take the Jeep, not the Fiat.
This is a toy like a sportscar or an off-road Wrangler. Niches are nice — why does every vehicle have to be a commodity? An electric toaster?
The iconic shape of the 2024 Fiat 500e. Henry Payne, The Detroit News
The 500 earns its distinction thanks to decades of brand polishing. Sure, the Italian is a healthy 10 grand north of a comparable subcompact Hyundai Venue, but the Fiat oozes la dolce vita with its big peepers, 17-inch wheels and Easter egg shape. There are few cars as recognizable as the 500. Think VW Bug, Ford Mustang, Porsche 911, Land Rover Defender, Mazda Miata. Icons all — and all aimed at niche buyers.
The Fiat is one of a handful starting at $40K-or-below in an EV class with its natural competitor being another icon, the $32K Mini Cooper Electric. Others to consider: Tesla’s 40-grand Model 3 and Volvo’s $36K Tesla-esque EX30 EV.
Tesla is king given its superior range (for that Naples or Grand Rapids trip) and superior tech (it can park itself as well as do neat Summon tricks). But the Fiat’s happy clown face always seems to be smiling compared to the Tesla’s smartphone vibe.
For $37,595, the 500e Beauty and Music models also match the Tesla with adaptive cruise control and blind-spot assist. Tellingly, my entry level $34K Red tester (in addition to its hard plastic interior) is not equipped with these urban essentials so Fiat can remain in the black. Yet another EV challenge, though the feds aim to make the Fiat more affordable with a whopping $7,500 tax credit if leased (the Fiat’s Italian assembly makes it ineligible for the $7,500 purchase subsidy. Go figure).
Detroit News columnist Henry Payne towers over the 2024 Fiat 500e. Henry Payne, The Detroit News
Red’s cabin is otherwise state-of-the-art with wireless charging, wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, volume/radio station controls on the back of the steering wheel, Alexa connectivity and Stellantis’s best-in-biz Uconnect 5 infotainment software. The rear seats will fit small adults and the hatchback makes for usable cargo storage, especially with the rear seats collapsed.
Buyers in big cities will, of course, enjoy maneuvering their 500e in tight apartment garages. For those folks, Fiat’s $600 credit for a 240-volt wall charger makes little sense (especially as apartment buildings balk at the expense of installing their own chargers), so use the credit on Stellantis’s Free2Move app, locate area fast chargers, and plan a meal each week around charging the car. The Fiat will drink a quick 30 miles of electrons in 5 minutes when needed.
The front seats of the 2024 Fiat 500e easily fit six-footers. The back seats? Not so much. Henry Payne, The Detroit News
Not your thing? It’s a niche, not a necessity.
Fiat would do the 500e a favor by offering a soft-top version at some point (that way seven-footers could stick their necks out the top). The soft top has been a signature of the Italian meatball over its 63-year history and would fill a disappearing market in the United States. Open-air models like the Camaro convertible, Toyota Solara and Buick Cascada have all disappeared in recent years.
Cruising with the windows down on Route 1 — the East Coast’s Woodward Avenue — on the way back into Miami, Brian cranked up his Pandora playlist through the car’s speakers. Miami is a car town like Motown, and we mingled with other icons on the route: Mustang convertible, Lamborghini Huracan, door-less Wrangler.
The interior of the 2024 Fiat 500e has no driveline interruption — so it’s easy for big drivers to splay their legs. Henry Payne, The Detroit News
The 500e follows in the footsteps of 1957-vintage grandfather 500, a clown car with its engine hanging out the back and a similar urban mission. Take it on the highways and its 13 horsepower would take a week to reach its 53-mph top speed — if it didn’t get stomped by a truck first.
Today’s 94-mph 500e is not meant for road trips, either. But if you’re looking for a daily smile, it might be the fashion fit for your keychain.
Next week: 2024 Genesis G90
2024 Fiat 500e
Vehicle type: Electric, front-wheel drive, four-passenger coupe
Price: $34,095, including $1,595 destination charge (as tested)
Powerplant: 40-kWh lithium-ion battery with front electric motor drive
Transmission: Single-speed transmission
Weight: 2,952 pounds
Power: 117 horsepower, 162 pound-feet of torque
Performance: 0-60 mph, 8.5 seconds (mfr.); top speed, 94 mph
Fuel economy: EPA est. range, 149 miles
Report card
Highs: Iconic looks; fun day at the circus
Lows: Specific metro use case; pricey for a subcompact
Overall: 3 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne