The 2024 Fiat 500e fights the weight and price bloat of current EVs.
The 2024 Fiat 500e marks the return of an EV that its maker once asked Americans not to buy. Fiat certainly thought the timing wasn’t right for that original 500e, but the timing of the new version, which is scheduled to arrive in early 2024, seems impeccable.
The first Fiat 500e was sold only in California and Oregon, and was built purely to satisfy California’s zero-emission vehicle mandate. Early EV enthusiasts liked it, thanks to an affordable price and retro styling carried over from a concurrent gasoline 500 model. But Sergio Marchionne, then head of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (the predecessor of current Fiat parent Stellantis), said the company lost money on each car and once declared that he hoped customers didn’t buy it.
Things are different this time. First shown in 2021 and already on sale in Europe, the new 500e is still a modern interpretation of the classic 1950s Fiat 500. But instead of being a converted gasoline car, it was designed from the ground up as an EV.
