Abarth 500e Hatchback (2023-) Review

Introduction

There’s no doubt the switch to electric power has been a challenge for some car manufacturers. Smaller brands and sports car specialists have been grappling with the thorny issue for years now, and few have found electric power as antithetical as Abarth. A company known for its loud takes on Fiat products, the idea of a silent and subtle city car is about as far removed from Abarth’s brand identity as it’s possible to be.

Yet here we are, looking at Abarth’s first electric car. It’s based on the new Fiat 500e, which is already a pretty attractive vehicle, but Abarth has beefed it up with remarkable success, giving the cute hatchback a slightly more steroidal image. The company has upped the power output, too, and in a slightly strange departure from the electric car norm, it has also upped the volume. But can an electric hatch really feel like a proper Abarth product?

At a Glance

It’s immediately obvious that the Abarth 500e is based on the Fiat of the same name, but it’s also clearly packed with more intent. From the bolder bumpers to the scorpion on the side and from the big wheels to the massive lower grille, it’s every inch the hot hatchback. Except, of course, for the fact it doesn’t have an exhaust pipe – just a very exhaust-y noise coming from the rear when you press the start button.

That’s because one of the Abarth’s key features is its sound generator – essentially a massive speaker that plays a synthesised ‘engine’ note – which adds a bit more excitement and fun to the car. But the interior is quite dark, with a sporty feel heightened by the inclusion of Alcantara suede-style upholstery in the range-topping Turismo models.

That sportiness is complemented by the performance, which is brisk without being ballistic. Getting from 0-62mph takes about seven seconds, and at full chat the car is doing just 96mph. But then this is a car for urban environments, and it’s great for nipping in and out of traffic, while the acceleration from 0-30mph is outrageous.

But it’ll handle the world outside a city centre, too. There’s a bit of body roll, but the steering is pretty good and the car darts into corners quite happily, giving it a sense of unbridled joy. It might not be the fastest or most efficient way from A to B, but it will put a smile on your face, and that’s the more important factor.

Key Features

One of the 500e’s biggest differentiators is the sound. In a bid to give the car the aural excitement of a petrol-powered Abarth, the company has essentially fitted a massive speaker under the boot floor, giving the car a semi-engine-like sound both inside and out. It’s quite noisy, and it gets a bit annoying after a while, but it does give the car a bit of faux character. It’s one of those things we’d leave on for a fun blast through the countryside, but switch off immediately on a long drive or around town, where the noise will only grate with occupants and others.

The other big deal for the Abarth is its design, which builds on the cute and ultra-modern styling of the Fiat 500e. To that car’s basic shape, Abarth has added chunky bumpers, bigger wheels and some extra styling feature, giving the car a much stockier, more aggressive look. Combine that with some bright colours, including the striking Acid Green paint scheme, and the electric-specific badges on the side, and it really looks quite dramatic in a compact sort of way.

Range & Batteries

Under the 500e’s floor is a 42.2kWh battery, which is small in pretty much anybody’s book. Go much smaller than that, in fact, and you start competing with plug-in hybrids, rather than fully electric cars. Nevertheless, Abarth claims that battery, combined with the 152hp electric motor, is good for a range of 157 miles on the official economy test. We found it slightly less capable on our test, although motorway miles will never be the car’s home turf. Realistically, you’re probably talking about a total range of maybe 125 miles on a mixture of roads, and just over 100 miles on the motorway. But Abarth reckons it’ll be more efficient around town, where you might match or even beat the quoted range, depending on how much you enjoy the car’s acceleration.

Performance & Drive

With a 152hp electric motor driving the front wheels, the Abarth 500e doesn’t sound especially powerful — not when the MG4 XPower is churning out more than 400hp. But that’s only part of the story.

Because the Abarth 500e is relatively light compared with most other electric cars, 152hp is more than enough for pretty nippy acceleration, and the little hatchback can get from 0-62mph in seven seconds flat. That isn’t incredibly pace, particularly from a hot hatchback, but it isn’t that much slower than a Golf GTI. And all from a car with less than 200hp.

More impressive than the straight-line speed is the instant turn of pace that allows the car to dash from 0-31mph in less than three seconds. Admittedly, that won’t help in many drag races, but it makes the little Abarth perfect in its home territory of the town centre. There, it doesn’t have to be rapid — it has a top speed of 96mph — but it does have to be nimble, agile, and quick off the mark.

It ticks those boxes very nicely, with an impressive ability to nip in and out of traffic thanks to sharp steering and compact dimensions. It isn’t a handling sensation — you still feel as though you’re perched high on the seat and there’s a surprising amount of body roll thanks to the relatively tall roofline — but there’s plenty of grip and it’s good fun to chuck about.

The trade-off is a ride that’s less than exemplary, with a degree of jiggliness on anything other than a perfectly smooth surface. But in the Abarth’s defence, it’s far from the stiffest hot hatchback on the market, and the ride is good enough, even if it isn’t perfect. It certainly isn’t about to shake your teeth out in the way some petrol-powered Abarths might.

Charging

Although the Abarth 500e’s battery is relatively small, it only charges moderately quickly. Filling the battery from empty will take more than 15 hours using a conventional three-pin socket, so it’s best to use a proper ‘wallbox’ charging unit. Charge from a commercial 11kW charger, such as the ones you might find outside hotels or pubs, and it’ll take four-and-a-quarter hours to fill the battery. But for quick charging on the move, the Abarth will charge at up to 85kW, which means it’ll gather 25 miles of official (not real-world) range in five minutes at maximum DC charge speeds. Topping up from empty to 80% charge takes 35 minutes, assuming you can find a charger fast enough. But with many charging points offering 50kW charging, it’ll take a little longer than that.

Running Costs & Emissions

For those who can charge at home and use the 500e as a fun second car for running to the shops, it will be remarkably cheap to run. Although energy costs have risen, charging overnight at home is still the cheapest way of powering your car, particularly if you can take advantage of lower off-peak rates. If you charge away from home, however, public charging can be a bit more expensive, and long journeys will mean the Abarth needs to charge frequently. So frequently, in fact, that you might find a conventional Fiat 500 cheaper to fuel, if not cheaper in terms of taxation and other costs.

And therein lies the real key to the 500e’s appeal. If you want a fun, company-funded small car for nipping to work and other local journeys, the Abarth will be a hoot. And because the government is still incentivising electric company cars, the Benefit-in-Kind tax burden will be as laughably small as the car’s rear seats.

Interior & Technology

In the main, the Abarth 500e’s interior is much the same as that of the Fiat 500e, albeit with plenty of sporty touches. You get the same basic dashboard design, for example, but the Abarth adds a three-spoke steering wheel in place of the Fiat’s two-spoke arrangement. And if you opt for the range-topping Turismo versions, you get lots of race-inspired suede upholstery that adds a bit of extra tactility to proceedings, even if it’s a bit harder to clean.

Combine that with some electric Abarth-specific colour choices — mostly black with yellow and blue bits — and the impression is of something decidedly more sporty than your common-or-garden 500e. However, it does feel a bit oppressive in there, even with the Turismo hard-top’s glass roof, which you don’t get on the base model.

On the tech front, there’s a massive central touchscreen that looks modern and comes with Abarth-specific design, even though it’s essentially shared with the Fiat 500e. The system isn’t the best, because some of the menus and screens are a little confusing and it isn’t always easy to find the function you want, but it’s a step forward for Fiat and Abarth, both of which have been struggling along with deeply outdated tech for years. Better is the digital instrument display, which is clearer and easier to read, although it comes up with some annoying menu displays at times, including when you try to change the drive mode.

And it isn’t just the technology that’s hit-and-miss. The cabin quality is a bit of a mash-up, too, with some really pleasant materials on show, particularly in the Turismo model, which is lavished with swathes of suede. But that only makes some of the hard plastics inherited from the Fiat 500e stand out that bit more. The door trims feel particularly unappealing, and that’s a shame for something so prominent.

We aren’t sold on the seats, either, because they somehow manage to look very sporty but feel completely different. You perch on them, rather than sinking into them, and it spoils some of the fun you could have if the seats were as supportive as they first appear.

Practicality & Boot Space

Space in the Abarth is, shall we say, limited. Like the Fiat 500e on which it’s based, the rear seats are only really for show, and perhaps small children. Certainly, adults will find life pretty miserable back there, with next door to no legroom and only slightly more headroom. It’s a long way from palatial, and the Abarth’s sporty seats don’t do much to make life easier in the rear, while the black roof lining only adds to the sense of claustrophobia.

Boot space, on the other hand, is a little more respectable, with a 185-litre luggage bay behind the rear seats. It isn’t massive by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s just about acceptable in the world of small city cars. And for the usual stuff – shopping, school bags, briefcases and the like – it’ll be more than roomy enough. After all, you don’t really want your delicate shopping flying around an enormous boot when you’re batting along your favourite country road, do you?

Safety

The Abarth 500e has never been tested by Euro NCAP, so it doesn’t have a safety rating of its own. But then that isn’t entirely surprising, because the similarities with the Fiat 500e are so considerable. As a result, the Abarth inherits the Fiat’s four-star rating, which is solid for such a small car. Admittedly, the extra star would have been nice, but the 500e scored reasonably in most areas, including a good 80% rating for child occupant protection.

However, the Abarth 500e gets plenty of safety features as standard, including autonomous emergency braking that will slow the car if the driver fails to respond to a hazard. Lane-keeping assistance, traffic sign recognition and a system that can call emergency services automatically in the event of an accident are all fitted to all Abarth 500e models, too. Upgrading to the Turismo versions gives you some extra features, too, including blind-spot monitoring that will warn you if another vehicle has wandered into the hard-too-see areas over your shoulders.

Options

In short, the Abarth 500e range is pretty simple. Choose whether you want a convertible or a hard-top, then decide whether you’re going for the base model or the more upmarket Turismo.

To tell the truth, the trim levels don’t make all that much difference in terms of equipment – even the basic versions get 17-inch alloy wheels, rear parking sensors and keyless start, plus cruise control, a JBL sound system and a 10.25-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity.

If you want more, though, the Turismo gets larger 18-inch alloys, Alcantara trim on the interior and a rear-view camera, as well as heated front seats, a sunroof (for hard-top models only) and wireless phone charging. A few other safety systems are thrown in, including blind-spot monitoring and automatic dipped beam for the headlights, but it’s all stuff that’s nice to have, rather than being essential.

More essential is the Acid Green paint, which really makes the Abarth pop. Some customers won’t be brave enough to choose it, but we think it’s a really cool complement to the car’s character. If you’d rather have Adrenaline Red, Venom Black or Poison Blue, however, they’re all there for you.

Rival Cars

The electric hot hatchback genre is burgeoning, but it’s almost happening by accident. Thanks to the power and grunt of modern electric motors, it seems almost every battery-powered hatchback on the market could be dubbed a ‘hot hatch’ by internal combustion standards. Certainly in terms of straight-line speed.

The Cupra Born, for example, is considerably larger than the Abarth, but it still isn’t slow, and the same goes for the VW ID.3. Perhaps more appropriate is the Honda e, another micro EV that majors on style and comes with a modicum of performance, particularly by the standards of small petrol cars. Then there’s the MG4 XPower, which comes armed with bombastic acceleration and plenty of space, but weirdly lacks the joie de vivre of less powerful MG4 models.

Arguably the Abarth’s nearest rival, however, is the electric Mini (above), with a comparable range and an equally stylish exterior. There is a new model coming, which might change things, but for the time being the Mini is less fun and less dramatic than the Abarth, albeit slightly larger and more practical.

But the truth is, the Abarth doesn’t really have competitors, save for the basic Fiat 500e. The image and design are so perfectly judged that those with an eye on the Italian hatchback simply have to choose whether they want theirs to be stylish and grown-up, or yobbish and uncouth. Let’s face it, the big kid inside everyone is begging for the second option.

Verdict & Next Steps

In many ways, the Abarth 500e is useless. The noise is ridiculous, the bodywork is outrageous and the range is pitiful for anything more demanding than flitting around town. But if Abarth measured itself by its usefulness, the company would have ceased to exist many years ago. Abarth is all about fun, and despite the 500e lacking the exhaust note that made its predecessors such exciting propositions, it has managed to capture some of that essence. It is by no means perfect, but it will make you smile, and that’s exactly what it exists to do.

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**Score based on Select’s unique meta score analysis, taking into account the UK’s top leading independent car website reviews of the Abarth 500e. 

**Correct as of 06/11/2023. Based on 9 months initial payment, 5,000 miles annually, over a 48 month lease. Initial payment equivalent to 9 monthly payments, or £4,653.36 (Plus admin fee) Ts and Cs apply. Credit is subject to status.