Can the reborn Fiat 500 in fully electric guise be just as charming to live with as it is to look at? We're finding out over the next few months
The digital instrument cluster is minimal yet informative, and the accompanying 10.5in infotainment touchscreen gets sharp graphics and fast input responses that are unmatched in the city car class. Happily, the simplified dashboard isn’t completely devoid of physical buttons and makes good use of space to maximise oddments storage. That’s handy, because boot space is just as limited as it is in the petrol-powered 500, and now it has to accommodate both the three-pin and Type 2 charging cables.
Options? Very few. Discounting the Glacier Blue paint and 17in alloy wheels , the only noteworthy additions are the £450 Winter Pack, which brings a heated windscreen and heated front seats, and £130 wireless smartphone charging function – for once a genuinely useful inclusion, thanks to the presence of wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. There are plenty of larger cars that have yet to catch up in this area.
Icon-spec cars get only parking sensors as standard, instead of cameras, but I don’t expect to feel hard done by: even though the EV has grown a little, it remains a very compact car with excellent all-round visibility. You still sit very high but the driving position isn’t any worse than the petrol 500’s, which is impressive, given that you’re now perched atop a skateboard stuffed with battery cells.First impressions have been overwhelmingly positive.
The biggest challenge so far has been learning to judge the regenerative braking, which is minimal in the Normal driving mode but quite forceful in the Range and Sherpa settings. It’s strong enough to turn the 500 into a one-pedal car, but because it gets a lot more sensitiveat slower speeds, I’ve been finding it brings me to a halt just before a junction, rather than at it. This is especially true in reverse, where I would prefer a little more rollback. It can make parking a jerky experience.
Only a week after I took delivery, the car was called into action for a full road-test review. The fact that I missed it while it was gone certainly bodes well for the next few months.Having driven a 500 with the little battery, I think Tom will be grateful for the range of his car. The 24kWh option really is good only for city work, especially in the winter. But what a joyous thing it was when I drove one around Cambridge. It’s hard not to be seduced by the 500’s charm.
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