Yahoo Autos Fiat Is Making an Abarth Version of Its All-Electric 500 Hatch
Fiat announced back in 2020 its lovable 500 hatchback would be going all-electric, with a new design and a revamped interior. The Italian company's been mum on whether we'd see a new high-performance Abarth model... up until now.
Fiat head Olivier François told Autocar on Monday an Abarth version of the electric 500 is already under development.
“The bad news is that it’s more complicated to deliver than I thought," François said of the car's progress. "If you want to do a real Abarth, it’s not the same electric powertrain. Once it has the power and torque you want, it’s no longer the same drivetrain, nor the same transmission or brakes… the whole thing has to be adapted.”
Fiat rates the new electric 500 at 117 horsepower thanks to a 42 kWh battery pack, with an estimated 0-62 mph time of nine seconds and an electronically limited top speed of 93 mph. We expect the Abarth version to slice that acceleration down to a more reasonable number, and a top speed north of 100 mph.
Considering electric motors don't carry the same zest as the raspy 1.4-liter turbo inline-four in the last Abarth, we have our reservations about whether a new Abarth would be able to differentiate itself enough from the standard model to be exciting. But François sounds confident the car will deliver.
“It’s going to be fantastic," he told Autocar. "The sound is going to be very interesting. There will be a choice to be silent or not.”
Test drives for the Abarth EV are already underway, according to the Fiat boss. But it's still unclear whether either it or the standard 500 will come to the United States. A spokesperson told us back in 2020 the company was evaluating car's potential for the North American market, but we haven't heard any updates since. We've reached out again to find out if a determination has been made.
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