It will be no surprise to anyone that the Fiat 500e, released in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, hasn’t been selling well. In fact, sales have become so poor that production at the Mirafiori plant in Turin, Italy had to be paused at points last year, despite now being exported to the US.
A last-ditch effort to revitalise the city car has seen Fiat reengineer the pure electric model – at considerable expense, I’m sure – to accept a petrol engine, in keeping with the general industry trend. Pre-production assembly of the combustion-powered version, simply called the 500 Hybrid, has begun ahead of full-scale production targeted for November 2025.
The car you see here looks remarkably similar to its zero-emission sibling, belying what was certainly a comprehensive reworking to the front end and underpinnings, which Fiat says is symbolic of the brand’s “social relevance.”
The obvious few changes include an expected larger front opening (obscured by camouflage here) to feed more air into the engine, as well as a fuel filler where the charging port would normally sit. With the exhaust pipe hidden by the bumper, the 500 Hybrid looks otherwise identical to the 500e – even the 17-inch wheels are carried over.
Inside, the car is again as per the electric version, with a two-spoke steering wheel (here with a red 500 logo), a 10.25-inch floating infotainment touchscreen and a shelf that houses a Qi wireless charger. Sprouting from under the aforementioned dash is by far the biggest indicator of the car’s combustion powertrain – an unexpected manual gearlever, topped by a cute gloss black knob.
That row-your-own shifter means that despite the “Hybrid” tag, the electric assistance afforded here will be mild at best. As Autocar reports, the car is set to utilise the same Nm 1.0 litre naturally-aspirated three-cylinder engine and 12-volt belt-driven starter-generator as the previous-generation 500 Hybrid that was discontinued last year, where it made 70 PS and 92 Nm of torque.
The manual gearbox rules out Stellantis’ more powerful electrified small-car engine – a 1.2 litre turbocharged PureTech three-pot and 48-volt mild hybrid system found in the new Grande Panda – because that mill has only ever been mated to a six-speed dual-clutch transmission.
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