Fiat 600e La Prima long-term test: urban EV has plenty of flair

Verdict

Fiat does extremely well when it comes to cute, Italianate urban runarounds, so it’ll be interesting to see how this upsized version of the 500 gets on over our six months together. Our initial thoughts surrounding efficiency and the low-speed driving experience are a sign of good things, but we’re not sure how deep that talent is likely to run. 

• 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.