Field Of Dreams (Part 6) - Fiat 500e

Credit to Fiat for being the fun one. How Italian of the company, taking a government mandate and bouncing it back with orange-pinstriped wheels, body stripes, and a steering wheel trimmed in red leather. Shows you what Italians think of government edicts: It’s an excuse for a party, for sprezzatura!

Fiat makes only a modestly greater effort than Smart to cater to the EV buyer

Of course, a gasoline model converted to electric drive carries with it most of the donor car’s faults. The Fiat 500 was small inside before electrification, with just two cramped seats in back – two more than the Smart, at least – and a giant center console seemingly intended as a knee-knocker for the hapless driver, who has to struggle with the gorilla-like driving position. Arms out, legs splayed, ankles cocked. Naturally, the discomfort is more tolerable at $16,995, the price of the cheapest gas 500.

Fiat makes only a modestly greater effort than Smart to cater to the EV buyer. You start it as you would a ’78 Monte Carlo, by inserting the key and twisting it through a spring-loaded detent, which seems especially old fashioned in an electric (the Fit EV is the same). The drive selector’s push buttons, which are lonely and a terrible waste of space on that knee-banging console, offer no modes besides D. Others have sport, eco, L, or B modes that step up the motor’s response or the regenerative braking as desired.

The Fiat 500 was small inside before electrification, with just two cramped seats in back

The cluster is a bright multicolored info screen, but it’s an opportunity squandered. The data is limited to the bare essentials: battery life, a miles-to-go estimate, and power flow. There’s the usual trip odometer plus tire-pressure information, but the screen only shows you EV-related statistics, such as the estimated recharge time, in one shotgun blast at shutdown. And it appears only for a few seconds before going blank. We had to cycle the key several times to get all the numbers.

The 500e has no built-in nav screen. Instead, a rudimentary TomTom unit clicks into a hole on the dashtop, standing tall like a highway billboard and impeding your 1-o’clock forward vision. The Tom-Tom will tell you where the nearest charging outlet is, but only after it’s synced to your phone via Bluetooth. Compared with the data-screen champ, the Leaf, it’s clunky and minimalist.

The 500e was quickest through the slalom thanks to its racier Firestone tires, fast steering, and tight roll control

The Fiat drives well despite being about 500 pounds heavier than the comparable gasoline model. The extra tonnage improves the 500’s normally harsh ride, however, and it hangs in a corner, has fabulously firm brakes, and will easily spin an inside tire with its stout torque. The 500e was quickest through the slalom thanks to its racier Firestone tires, fast steering, and tight roll control. The largest battery, tied with the Leaf at 24.0 kWh, also produced the longest observed range if not the most frugal MPGe consumption figures.

But who worries about consumption when you’re partying?