First Drive Review
Would you consider an electric car if your lease cost were $999 down and $199 per month for 36 months? And if the dealership had a special hotline you could call to untangle confusion regarding costs, incentives, and more? What if, each year of your lease, you received 12 days’ use of a gas-powered car? And if there were a smartphone app that could communicate the vehicle’s charge level, control charging, help find charging stations, and heat or cool your car while it was still plugged in? Suppose that electric car drove very much like its gasoline counterpart except quieter? And honestly, do you drive more than 87 miles each day? If this sounds peachy—and you live in California—Fiat has an electric 500E waiting with your name on it.
Get Down with the Down Low
The 2013 500E moves under the power of a three-phase AC synchronous motor that delivers 111 horses and 147 lb-ft of torque to the front wheels via a single-speed transmission. Energy is stored in a 642-pound, liquid-cooled (and heated), 24-kWh lithium-ion battery pack that lives under the floor between the side rails. The flat pack stretches from the front seats to 10 inches shy of the rear bumper.
One could make the case that Bosch deserves a badge on this car, as the firm provides the battery (cells by Samsung), the battery packaging, the management software, the electric motor, and the regenerative braking system. Fiat calls the braking fully blended, so that, when you’re coasting or braking, the motor is recovering every electron possible and shoving it back into the battery. This only lessens when the battery is full or if the car is traveling slower than 8 mph. At that point, the car reverts to conventional friction braking. The regen also shuts off during full-ABS panic stops.
Overall weight gain stands at some 600 pounds over a regular 500, which places the 500E dangerously close to the 3000-pound mark. It was this extra poundage that motivated engineers to use the flattened battery shape to mount the pack down low in the car, where the weight is less deleterious to handling. There are other alterations, including a reworked body structure that is said to be 10 percent more rigid, much stiffer springs, and a heavy-duty rear axle shared with the hotted-up 500 Abarth. The 500E rides on 15-inch Firestone Firehawk GT low-rolling-resistance tires.
The regular Fiat 500’s top-level Lounge trim provides a guide to the 500E’s equipment, which includes automatic climate control, remote keyless entry, USB and iPod connectivity, a stand-alone TomTom navigation unit, and heated front seats. Besides choosing your exterior color from among black, white, gray, silver, and Arancio Electrico (shockingly bright orange), the only notable option is an e-Sport package that adds black trim for the headlamps, taillamps, and turn signals; orange side-mirror caps; orange side graphics; and staggered-width 15-inch black-and-orange wheels.
How It’s Different
All this is applied to a 500 that has been tweaked aesthetically from the standard model. Although aerodynamic efficiency was the first priority, the result just might be cuter than the original. Fiat designers spent 140 hours in the wind tunnel, often with clay and trowel in hand, cutting drag by a claimed 13 percent and interior sound levels by 20 percent. The reshaping served to boost highway-speed range by about five miles, the company says. New stuff includes the front and rear lower fascias, the wheels, the rear spoiler, the side sills, and the mirror caps. Fiat used adjectives such as “aggressive,” “athletic,” and “masculine” when describing the 500E, words rarely heard around electric cars. Or any Fiat 500 this side of an Abarth, for that matter.
Fiat 500 owners will spot a few major interior differences in the 500E, including a new and far-less-fussy central gauge pod, four buttons in place of a traditional gear lever, an oblong goiter on the dashboard, and revised vehicle info on the TomTom nav system. The 500E’s instrument panel now houses a full-color display that shows speed, battery level, power flow, range, and "trending" arrows that note whether you’ve been naughty or nice with power use. The oblong thing is a light that illuminates when charging so you can tell from 50 feet away whether your car is sucking juice.
