Fiat, clearly needing to broaden its product portfolio beyond a succession of 500-based spin-offs, has come up with the all-electric 600e compact crossover. It's marketed as a larger sibling to the excellent 500e, but it's also a replacement for the old Fiat 500X. Proposing to offer an affordable slice of la Dolce Vita to electric vehicle (EV) customers by using familiar Stellantis underpinnings, just how successful will this all-new 600e?
In the metal
Fiat has gone for the maximum exterior 'cute' effect for the new 600e, which is an approach that is sure to work well. OK, it heavily riffs off the look of the smaller 500e, so there are sweet round headlights and daytime running lamps, large and expressive rear light clusters, and a familiar profile to the vehicle with a short bonnet and sloping back - albeit the entire car stands higher, as befits the 600e's crossover status. The 'not a 500' message is reinforced with a large '600' logo in the nose, another chrome '600' detail on the side sills and then a further '600' emblem in the rear bumper, the latter of which features the colours of the Italian tricolour. Just for good measure, the wheel centres of the 18-inch alloys all say '600' on them too - so you can be in no doubt which Fiat you're looking at.
Beyond that, there's a small 'e' emblem on the boot to denote the electric status of this car, which also makes it necessary to call the car '600e' and not just '600'. This is because Fiat has now confirmed that the 600 will also be available with hybrid power in the coming months, so there's a need to clearly differentiate the fully-electric model from the rest of the line-up, but conversely there will be no pure internal combustion models to choose from; every 600 will be electrified in some way.
Perhaps the most interesting visual feature of the 600e is the colours it will be available in. This is the first car launched by the Italian manufacturer since it announced 'no more silvers and greys', instead committing to a bright palette of paintworks. Curiously, one of the four colours - which are all related to the classical elements - available for the flagship La Prima model looks very grey-ish, which is Sand Earth of Italy. Perhaps refer to it as beige... Anyway, the other choices are Orange Sun of Italy, Blue Sky of Italy (it's more a teal) and Green Sea of Italy (this looks very dark blue, so let's call it 'deep aquamarine' to be generous). There's also a plain red finish, for the 'Red' specification model. Which colours or models come to Ireland has yet to be confirmed.
For all this stylish exterior design and array of eye-catching finishes, it's therefore a shame the interior of the Fiat 600e isn't quite as vibrant, but it is a more conservative part of the market. It shares much with the recently launched and related Jeep Avenger, with Fiat's designers fitting a large oval of contrast detailing to the main fascia to tie the 600e in with the smaller 500e's cabin.
There are plenty of good points. The seats with their Fiat-logo embroidery are particularly nice to look at and, more crucially, sit on, while the two-spoke steering wheel is pleasing to hold and harks back to the company's 1960s heyday, when there was also a larger 600 model sold alongside the original 500. It's noble, too, as 91 per cent of the fabrics within the Fiat come from recycled PET bottles, to the extent the company says you sit on 200 of them in the 600e.
It's maybe not quite the roomiest for those sitting in the back, but at least having a pair of rear doors makes access to the second row of seating easier, while the boot is a useful 360 litres with all the seats in place. So while the interior of the 600e isn't as good as the exterior, it's nevertheless good enough to make the overall kerb appeal of the car pretty high from the outset.
Driving it
There are a lot of vehicles in the Stellantis group using the same hardware as the Fiat 600e, which is the latest 'eCMP2' chassis with a 115kW (156hp) electric motor and a 54kWh battery pack (that's the gross energy capacity figure). Fiat's engineers have tuned the suspension specifically for the 600e, while they have also worked on the agility of the car - with a 2,562mm wheelbase in a body just 4,171mm long, Fiat is proud to confirm the 600e has a tight turning circle of a mere 10.5 metres, making it highly manoeuvrable in town.
Officially, the 600e can do slightly in excess of 400km on a single charge if judged on the WLTP combined cycle, but if you want to do '600 in a 600' then stick to city speeds, where its one-shot driving capability increases to 591km according to Fiat.
Like any EV, the 600e is much quieter than any internal combustion engine car, especially when you are driving on smooth roads around town. Issues with refinement come when the road surfaces are less than perfect or your speeds are higher, because the suspension in the Fiat is surprisingly noisy - so you hear it dealing with attempting to soften out bumps in the road, slightly more than you feel it.
There also seem to be elevated levels of tyre roar and wind noise once you get past 80km/h. There's a definite rustling of wind around the B-pillars, which is where the back of the front doors meets the front of the rear ones, and the general road noise is marked on the motorway. While it is no means actively bad in any of these departments, neither is it class-leading.
No compact crossover really needs to handle like a hot hatch, we know this, and least of all an electric one with a focus on city driving. The steering is supposed to become heavier in Sport mode than it is in Normal or Eco, but in truth it just felt aloof and detached no matter what we did with it. Sport mode is also where you liberate the full 156hp of the electric motor, with Fiat claiming an admirable nine-second 0-100km/h time... but the 600e doesn't feel particularly quick at any stage.
What you get for your money
Fiat Ireland hasn't confirmed prices and specifications for the 600e as yet, so we will bring you those as soon as we have them. The hope is that the Fiat will represent very good value for an EV at this level, which will strengthen its overall case no end, but as we cannot confirm that yet then we won't bring that potential value for money into our overall reckoning.
Summary
While there are quite a few electric crossovers on the market that are better to drive, the all-new Fiat 600e's appeal is going to come, largely, from the way it looks. If you've always liked the smaller 500, but you wanted something more practical - with easier-to-access, more spacious rear seats and a larger boot - yet you also are aiming to make the transition from internal combustion to an electric vehicle, this is most definitely the car for you; it won't disappoint you in the slightest, and it has a good amount of electric range available to it.
