2024 Fiat 500e Road Test and Review

2024 Fiat 500e Inspired by Beauty ・ Photo by Brady Holt

I drove my Fiat through idyllic Italian countryside and winding mountain roads, where it looked like anyone else’s car in the region of Lazio outside of Rome. 

But that’s because I wasn’t driving the fully electric 2024 Fiat 500e Inspired by Beauty Edition that you see on this page. I was driving a rented Fiat Tipo – a sensible, charmless station wagon with a gasoline engine, manual transmission, white paint, and scrapes all over its front and rear bumpers. 

I drove the 500e – with its Rose Gold (pink) paint job and Italian flags decorating its turn signals – back home in greater Baltimore, Maryland. I didn’t see anything quite like it during my 10 days in Italy (though plenty of gasoline-powered 500s). Nor did I see anything else quite like it in the U.S. 

Passersby loved the pink 500e. This is the tiny retro hatchback’s second generation in the U.S., but its size (it makes a Mini Cooper look bulky) and oh-so-cute style remain novel. Yet while Fiat used to sell an extra-affordable gas-powered 500 in the U.S., it’s now only available in this all-electric 500e form. With a starting price of $32,500 and an EPA-estimated range of just 141 miles per charge, the 500e can serve only a tiny niche. Still, based on a weeklong test, it is quite appealing within that niche – or if you can find a killer discount. Keep reading as this review explores more details of the 500e to see if it could work for you.

Unavoidably Twee

The 2007 Fiat 500 was the Italian answer to the Volkswagen New Beetle and Mini Cooper – retro reinventions of each country’s favorite tiny hatchbacks. It reached the U.S. market in 2012 but disappeared in 2020 after selling decently for a subcompact car but falling short of Fiat’s lofty expectations. The new all-electric generation, back in the U.S. for 2024, will hardly turn around that sales picture. 

But there’s no denying that this is an adorable little car – small, cute, and oh-so-twee. If General Motors didn’t have a product-placement deal in the “Barbie” movie, at least one of the Barbies would drive this Fiat. The new generation looks just like the previous, with its tiny nose and round headlights. The details got more upscale, like the thin LED semicircles that now form those headlights. But this car is so overwhelmingly small, it’s not exactly trying to be fancy. Only the dressy 17-inch wheels on our test car struck us as being too much for the 500e’s endearing mission. 

Every 500e is a three-door hatchback with a fixed roof, without the old 500’s available convertible top. Color selection is limited to black, white, and bright red on the base Red model; black on the Inspired by Music model with an upgraded stereo; Rose Gold on the Inspired by Beauty like our test vehicle; and light blue on the Inspired by Los Angeles. 

2024 Fiat 500e Inspired by Beauty ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Errand-Running Range

The 500e’s tiny size means you probably weren’t picturing it as the perfect car for a cross-country road trip. Its electric range confirms that. In EPA testing, the 500e travels just 141 miles per charge (or 149 miles with summer-only tires) – the shortest distance of any new EV sold in the U.S. 

Now, that’s still more than enough range for most folks to commute to work and run some errands. Plenty of folks could probably stretch out a single charge over a whole week. What’s more, like most EVs, it’s the most efficient at lower speeds and stop-and-go traffic than on the open freeway – perfect for rush-hour commuting into a busy city. 

We did beat the EPA’s range estimate. After we drove for 149 miles in and around Baltimore, the car still reported 12 percent of its battery capacity remaining (which the trip computer estimated would last us another 16 miles). That also trounces the 139 miles the car predicted for us at a full charge. We tested the car during a week of mild October weather, and EVs tend to lose range in the cold. 

2024 Fiat 500e Inspired by Beauty ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Pint-Sized Efficiency

The EPA says the 500e uses the energy equivalent of 121 mpg in the city, 100 mpg on the highway, and 110 mpg overall, and we beat that estimate by eking out more miles from its little 42 kWh battery. That’s great by most standards, though a number of larger and more powerful EVs are even more efficient. 

While the 500e’s small battery limits range, it does charge up again quickly. A 240-volt car charger, like you’d install in your garage or find in some public charging stations, can bring the battery from empty to full in just over six hours. Even a standard 120-volt household outlet can do the deed in a little more than 24 hours, which means that someone with a 70-mile round-trip commute could fully recharge on an ordinary plug after getting home from work. The 500e isn’t optimized for DC fast charging stations, needing 35 minutes to reach an 80 percent charge. Many EVs hit 80 percent faster – and go much farther with an 80 percent charge, too. It’s one more reason the 500e isn't the best car for a long road trip.

As with other EVs, you’ll likely get great fuel savings versus a gasoline vehicle if you’re able to charge up at home, but public stations tend to cost at least as much as buying gasoline. If you’d need to park your city car on the street and charge up in public, especially using DC stations, keep your cost expectations in check. 

2024 Fiat 500e Inspired by Beauty ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Easy to Drive, Even Easier to Park

While most EVs in the U.S. are higher-end vehicles, electric economy cars have a notable appeal: They delete noisily labored gas engines in favor of smooth, near-silent quickness. The 500e is no sports car, with just 117 horsepower. But you can plant your foot to the floor and whir forward without drama, especially at lower speeds. Extra-smooth, light steering also confirms the 500e as a car that prioritizes comfort over high-speed antics. Pushing the 500e reveals high handling limits, but the steering doesn’t inspire the car to play like an old 500 Abarth. 

The lack of engine noise keeps the 500e pretty quiet most of the time, and it rides smoothly except on the highway. It cruises easily enough at 70 mph, but like many small cars, it lacks the settled serenity of a larger vehicle that has more distance between its front and back wheels. 

At just 142.9 inches long, the 500e is the smallest car sold in the U.S. by a comfortable margin. The next-tiniest Mini Cooper and Mitsubishi Mirage are in the 150s. For context, a Honda Civic economy sedan stretches to 185 inches – 3.5 feet longer than the Fiat. Paired with the light steering and extra-tight 31.5-foot turning circle, the 500e is an extra-easy vehicle to park in tight spaces. 

2024 Fiat 500e Inspired by Beauty ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Classy Dashboard

We’re fans of the 500e’s interior design. The dashboard is gentle yet minimalistic, with smooth curves and few fussy details. The small center console doesn't connect to the dashboard, leaving an open, airy space. And the 10.25-inch infotainment touchscreen has attractive graphics. Note that the base model, the Red, is available only with a red dashboard (paired with black fabric upholstery). The upper-trim “Inspired by” models have leatherette upholstery and more muted interior colors. 

A few controls could be easier to use. The optional seat heaters require a careful tap on a corner of the touchscreen. Not everyone will love the push-button gear selector. And for some reason, we regularly failed to start the car on our first try, landing in accessory mode instead. But unlike in some EVs, this is still a normal car’s interior. A speedometer sits in front of the driver, and buttons and knobs control key audio and climate functions. The infotainment system supports Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone integration. A stalk beside the round steering wheel operates the turn signals. There isn’t a steep learning curve to drive this car. 

2024 Fiat 500e Inspired by Beauty ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Perhaps As Roomy As You’d Expect

For a tiny car, the Fiat 500e has a commanding seating position and plenty of space for the driver. The front seats aren’t wide, but legroom and headroom are plentiful. As we mentioned, cloth upholstery is standard, while upper trim levels add leatherette and heated front seats. All trim levels have manual seat adjustments. 

You’ll really feel the squeeze in the two-person backseat. We found the old 500 to be a pleasant surprise – not roomy, but more habitable than we’d expected given its tiny size. The new 500e shrinks its rear legroom further, and now it’s exactly as roomy as we’d expect. When the front seats go all the way back, there’s no gap between the front seatbacks and the rear seat cushions. Still, we’re grateful there is a backseat. We slid the front passenger seat all the way forward to install a rear-facing child safety seat, and even nimble adults can squeeze in for an emergency if front occupants are willing to give up some legroom. 

2024 Fiat 500e Inspired by Beauty ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Carry Some Cargo

The 500e doesn’t have much cargo space when the rear seat is in use. The seat reaches almost the back of the car, and between the angle of the seatback and the opposite angle of the rear windshield, any luggage must be kept to a minimum and arranged carefully. By the numbers, you get 7.5 cubic feet of space behind the backseat. For context, that’s less than half what you’d find behind the third row of most SUVs but only a little bit less than a Mini Cooper.

On the other hand, since this is a hatchback, you can fold down the backseat to open up a bigger space. At a quoted 19.4 cubic feet, that’s still pretty modest. And the 50-50 split-folding rear seat doesn’t lie flat or flush with the cargo floor. But when you don’t need the backseat, the 500e will let you fit in something like large suitcases, a piece of small furniture, or a dog.

2024 Fiat 500e Inspired by Beauty ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Not Priced to Sell

We like the idea of a small, affordable electric car as an alternative to the proliferation of luxury models. But the 500e isn’t as affordable as we’d have hoped. It has a starting sticker price of $32,500, plus a mandatory $1,595 destination charge, That money does buy you GPS navigation, a wireless smartphone charger, a lane-departure warning, and rain-sensing windshield wipers. But you have to buy one of the Inspired editions, for $36,000 plus destination, for heated leatherette upholstery, adaptive cruise control, automatic high beams, blind-spot monitoring, or lane-keeping steering assistance. You can’t get power seats, a sunroof, or a heated steering wheel at any price. 

All that being said, sticker prices have mattered little to many electric vehicles these days. They’re often discounted many thousands of dollars of their sticker prices, and lease deals are often even more compelling. Plus, certain states offer tax incentives for EV purchases. If the 500e could interest you at any price, crunch the numbers with your Fiat dealer. 

2024 Fiat 500e Inspired by Beauty ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Plug-In Alternatives

Though there’s nothing quite like the 500e, it’s one of several electric vehicles in the U.S. with sticker prices in the $30,000s. On the low end is the Nissan Leaf, a functional, comfortable, all-business five-door hatchback. Practical, affordable, and utterly charmless, it’s the least expensive electric car in the country. If the 500e interests you simply as a fuel-saving commuter car, the Leaf might be an even better fit. 

Other larger, nicer EVs in the 500e’s price range include the Chevrolet Equinox and Hyundai Kona crossover SUVs and the Hyundai Ioniq 6 mid-size sedan. Or there’s the Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid, a five-door hatchback that can travel 40 to 45 miles on electricity before operating as a 50 mpg gas-electric hybrid. It’s a compelling option if you have a short regular commute but want the flexibility to fill up at gas stations when you’re not able to recharge. The Kia Niro PHEV is a similar package, but it trades some range and efficiency for a roomier interior than the Prius. 

2023 Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid ・ Photo by Brady Holt

A Few People Will Really Love It

We’re puzzled by the Fiat 500e. We enjoyed driving it. And it attracted a lot of positive attention. But given its size and range, its appeal is limited at any price. And unless you find a big discount, its price is yet another obstacle. 

Fiat is part of the global auto conglomerate Stellantis, whose other brands include stylish yet functional French Peugeots and Citroens, plus ultra-affordable Romanian Dacias. Even Fiat’s own lineup has many cars that would likely sell better in the U.S. than a $32,500 electric minicar. 

But a few people will really love it. The 500e is fun to look at, it’s quiet and easy to drive, and it has extra-low operating costs and no tailpipe emissions. Plus, maybe your dealer will give you a big discount to take one off its lot. Keep its limitations in mind, but the 500e might just fill the tiny niche you’ve been looking for. 

2024 Fiat 500e Inspired by Beauty ・ Photo by Brady Holt