15The petrol-powered Fiat 500 Hybrid is finally on sale in the UK, almost seven months after production of left-hand-drive cars began at the firm’s factory in Italy. Prices start from £18,995 for the Icon-spec three-door hatchback, rising to £23,995 for the La Prima Convertible. Customer cars are due later this summer. These prices make the 500 Hybrid one of the cheapest new cars on sale, undercutting the Toyota Aygo X by more than £2,500. The previously electric-only Fiat uses a 64bhp 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine with a tiny 12-volt lithium-ion battery, sending power to the front wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox. For now, there is no auto option. Fiat is pitching the 500 Hybrid as “the perfect choice for efficient, urban motoring”. Presumably it thinks the 0-62mph time of 16.2 seconds (17.3 seconds for the 500 Convertible) might limit its usefulness out of town. Top speed stands at 96mph. Visually, the hybrid and electric 500s look almost identical. There is, however, a thin slot on the face of the hybrid, presumably to feed air into its minute engine, while inside, the dashboard has been revised slightly to accommodate the manual shifter. Three specifications will be offered: Icon and La Prima, plus a Torino launch edition. Icon cars start from £18,995 and come with 16-inch alloy wheels and LED lights, while inside there are bi-colour fabric seats and a body-coloured dashboard, plus a 10.25-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, automatic air-conditioning and rear parking sensors. Stepping up to La Prima (from £20,995), buyers get larger 17-inch wheels, tinted windows, and a fixed glass roof on hatchback versions. Inside, there’s heated eco-leather seats in a choice of colours, a so-called ‘matt-pearl’ dashboard and a bi-colour steering wheel. The infotainment system is upgraded with the addition of a rear camera and built-in sat-nav. Both versions can be ordered in Convertible guise for an additional £3,000; the Icon Convertible costs £21,995, while the top-spec La Prima Convertible is £23,995. With the exception of the glass roof, specifications between the hatch and cabrio are identical. Torino trim is available for a limited time, and only in hatchback form. These cars get unique badging and dedicated fabric and vinyl seats, bolstering a specification that otherwise largely matches the base Icon car’s. This model is also priced from £18,995. The latest iteration of the Fiat 500 was introduced in 2020, and is an undeniably sweet car. However, it has only been available as an EV until now, limiting its appeal and sales. It seems the brand is now willing to admit this was a mistake by fitting the mild-hybrid set-up that, in its own words, “brings the 500 back to the people, blending the heritage and technology developed with the electric version into a more accessible form”. 15Head of Fiat Europe Gaetano Thorel told Auto Express last year: “The new 500 is one of the best cars Fiat has ever had from a design and technology standpoint. The fact that we have limited the possibility for the majority of consumers to enjoy the new 500 really makes me very sad. So when the engineers found a way to put the engine inside, giving us the go [ahead] for the new 500 hybrid, it was one of the best days of my life.” To do this, Fiat’s engineering team has had to rework the latest 500’s electric architecture to shoehorn the powertrain of the previous 500 hybrid – which has been off sale in the UK for more than a year – into the nose. “It was an engineering challenge,” admitted Thorel. Removing the battery has not freed up any additional cockpit or trunk space, with the main interior difference being the installation of a manual gearshift. Interestingly, the 500 Hybrid does not use the same mild-hybrid technology that Fiat’s parent company Stellantis has installed in numerous models, including the Fiat 600 compact SUV, Peugeot 208 and Vauxhall Corsa. They use a turbocharged 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol engine, paired with a six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission with an integrated electric motor, which can propel the cars for short distances on pure electric power. Don’t get excited thinking the six-speed gearbox presages an Abarth replacement for the 595 hot hatch either. Speaking to us on an earlier occasion, Thorel emphasised that the engine was more for affordable motoring than performance: “The new 500 Hybrid that will be built in Mirafiori, its micro hybrid engine [is] nothing spectacular.” Instead, the company is pouring investment into new models, including a mooted £13,000 ‘E-car’ project, the ‘Grizzly’ family of mid-size SUVs, plus manual and 4x4 versions of the Grande Panda. Each forms part of parent company Stellantis’s five-year, 60-billion Euro FaSTLAne plan, which will see more than 100 new models before the end of the decade.
+14 others
