Fiat 600e La Prima long-term test: questionable build quality taints EV’s appeal

I’ve only recently taken over as the custodian of our Fiat 600e, but I’ve already got a bit of a love/hate relationship with the electric SUV. Its compact size means it’s great for parking on the school run, but I’m dubious about its build quality. The windows rattle whenever you shut the door firmly, and I was alarmed when the plastic covering of the charging port popped off when I brushed past it.

Fiat 600e La Prima: second report

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The Fiat 600e electric crossover is to face a new challenge in the form of family life

• Mileage: 2,353 miles
• Efficiency: 4.1m/kWh

Four months’ life with the Fiat 600e have revealed something to me. Its circa 150-mile motorway range just isn’t quite enough to serve my driving needs day-to-day. So, we’ve decided to part ways a few months early, giving it a chance to prove its worth as a family runaround with a new keeper, web producer Pete Baiden. 

Despite my lukewarm reception to the stark contrast between its quoted range and reality, it’s worth noting that the 600e really does excel as an urban SUV. Critical to this are its good visibility, narrow body and quick responses from the electric powertrain. 

The Fiat is also a fairly nice thing to sit in, because the bright interior keeps things airy and the infotainment system works well, even if it lacks some of the frills of rival systems. It’s also largely annoyance-free, which is a blessing in 2024. The lane-keep assist system is a little over-eager – they all are – but can be turned off by pressing a physical switch and confirming on screen. 

Another good point is the fact the 600e does, somehow, ‘feel’ Italian. This comes from a level of clarity to all its controls, and makes the 600e appear almost alive and agile, when so many of its rivals feel heavy. 

The throttle response is good, especially in Sport mode, and while the brakes are mostly devoid of feel, they are consistent. It would also be nice to have slightly quicker steering, but when all considered together, it does have an energy that rivals from Vauxhall or Peugeot don’t quite match. 

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However, with its new keeper, it’ll have a new set of challenges that will more likely concern its interior space than the driving experience. Pete’s first reaction was – in fairly stark contrast to my own – “Ah, the interior’s very, erm, white, isn’t it?” That was a reference to how his two young ones might handle the pale leather. But I assured him that during my tenure, the seats have remained pretty much as-new, and seem to be very stain and mark-resistant. 

He also mentioned one more factor that has yet to come into play for me: legroom in the second row. This is a compact SUV, and as so often, it’s a compromise between offering good space in the back or a big boot. In this case it’s clear which direction Fiat took. But, while legroom is tight for adults, once inserted, the kids and their relatively short legs shouldn’t be too claustrophobic back there, because the large windows and white headlining keep things feeling airy. 

Pete did note the boot looks really big, though. This was an area he was quite worried about, because, in his words,
“it’s not just kids that you need to think about, but all the stuff that accompanies them.” I also showed him the under-floor storage for the charge cable, which should keep it out of the way. 

However, the biggest reaction was from Pete’s wife, Paulina, who’s far more enthusiastic about how the Fiat looks.
“It’s so cute, I love it!” she said. “When I saw pictures, I worried that it was going to be too small and too bright, but the colour’s lovely.” 

I informed her that it’s called ‘Sea of Italy Blue’, at which she raised an eyebrow. But in general, Pete and Paulina seemed thrilled about spending some time with the Fiat. How they’ll get on from here is now up to them, but from my perspective it’s a bittersweet moment. 

While I’m not hugely sad to pass the 600e on, I did begin to admire it, owing largely to the fact that in contrast to rivals, it feels refreshingly free of fluff, and could almost be imbued with some of that intangible Italian soul. The challenge for the Fiat now is its new keepers, who have some more important aspects of the 600e to put to the test over the next few months. 

Fiat 600e La Prima: first report

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Early impressions are good as stylish electric crossover joins out fleet

• Mileage: 634 miles
• Efficiency: 4.1m/kWh

Put together your ideal combination of elements for the modern urban car and you might end up with something rather like the Fiat 600e. It’s electric and quite small on the outside – 200mm shorter and 100mm narrower than a Ford Focus hatchback – yet still has four doors and a pretty spacious boot. You also sit relatively high up, which helps with visibility, and it has fairly high-sidewall tyres to help avoid brushes with kerbs or width restrictors.

I live in London, so all of this makes for excellent reading as I prepare for six months with a 600e. It’s something made all the more exciting by my natural disposition towards anything Italian. But first, we should take a more objective look.

The 600e is Fiat’s new crossover, adding two more doors and a touch more capability to the popular 500e city car to create a model that sits above it in the brand’s line-up. 

Fiat is a member of the Stellantis empire, so there is a deep level of platform and technology sharing between the 600e and models from other firms within the group, such as the Jeep Avenger that my colleague John McIlroy has only just parted with.

Pretty much all of the technical elements are common between the two – from the 54kWh battery pack and 154bhp electric motor to the e-CMP platform. This gives the 600e a claimed range of 254 miles – not bad for an electric car of this size. Look inside and there are plenty more tangible correlations, too, such as the shared digital interfaces, gear selector and (already irritating) iPad-like cover for the central bin. 

The effort to separate Fiat from Jeep, particularly in our La Prima model, is fairly convincing, even if there is a whiff of ‘Spag Bol’ about it; as any Italian knows, there is no such thing as Spaghetti Bolognese in Italy. 

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Yet while the details are sound, the overall design is potentially a little less convincing. In contrast to the smaller 500e, which has a deft touch to its volumes, bodywork, slick proportions and elegant detailing, the 600 is somewhat more cumbersome. Its oversized headlights and awkward silhouette look less like an upsized version of the 500e – as was planned – and more like an inelegant copy designed by an adjacent team via Google Translate. 

Additions on the La Prima edition include some plush-looking ivory leather seats with contrasting teal piping and embroidery, plus a matching ivory dash insert and the not exactly ambiguously named ‘Sea of Italy’ blue paintwork. There’s also a powered tailgate, wireless phone charging, a set of ornate 18-inch alloy wheels and a bunch of exterior brightwork and tricolores that help lift the Fiat’s basic styling. 

This is on top of the standard equipment levels found in all 600e models, including a rather narrow but smart-looking 10-inch touchscreen display, dual-zone climate control, adaptive cruise control, LED headlights and dark-tint windows from the B-pillar back. All in, the 600e’s price is £36,995 which, for a limited time, will be offered alongside a £3,000 rebate directly from Fiat, bringing it down to £33,995.

All of which leads us to some initial thoughts. The Fiat’s range, and its efficiency in town, are already impressing me. At the end of most urban journeys I’ve seen up to six miles per kWh, which is very good. I’m also liking the general driving set-up, which feels well suited to slow-speed driving, and makes short work of the sometimes appalling state of the roads of the capital. 

The steering is light, the throttle response clean and the brakes have decent feel to them – not a given on any modern EV. Some brief forays beyond the city limits have revealed a few compromises for the sake of this natural around-town ability, but we’ll come to those in a future report. 

However, does the 600e truly feel Italian? Some evidence suggests this might be the case, but it’s maybe not in the positive sense you thought I was alluding to. That’s another thing to delve into over the next six months.

*Insurance quote from AA (0800 107 0680) for a 42-year-old in Banbury, Oxon, with three points.