Anyone who ever bought a Fiat Abarth made this choice based on three desires: compact, stylish and fast. Oh, and a nice sound of course, we mustn't forget that too. As far as this fourth wish is concerned, the arrival of the all-electric Fiat Abarth 500e is a bit of a stretch. Or is it?
Text: Gerben Bijpost
Whoever says Fiat Abarth, says driving pleasure. Especially in a city environment, cutting through the crowds like a hot knife through half-melted ice. Left and right you give everyone the runaround. In that respect, it only gets more fun now. For the new Abarth 500e is the most responsive Abarth ever in the city, as well as the fastest with the most driving fun outside. In short: it is more Abarth than ever. The electric powertrain also provides even better performance thanks to better weight distribution, more torque and a longer wheelbase. So electrification not only means 'greener' propulsion, but also pure, distilled, hardcore driving pleasure.
Why an Abarth 500e?
In fact, there was only one reason to start making an electric Abarth: the pursuit of the best performance. Already international targets relating to Co2 reduction no doubt had something to do with that too. Anyway, striving for better performance, then. After all, Abarth - with over 73 years of history in motorsport - has always pursued that goal.
Since its inception in 1949, Abarth has been synonymous with performance, competition and excitement, winning the hearts of enthusiasts for decades. From now on, 'the scorpion' (the striking and richly equipped introductory version is called Scorpionissima) is happy to take on any challenge at the traffic lights with a revolutionary model that takes performance to an unprecedented level. Fully in line with the mantra of the legendary Carlo Abarth: "Go faster than yesterday. Win more."
The figures
In concrete figures, this means the following. The new Abarth 500e is equipped with a powerful 42 kWh battery and has an output of 113.7 kW (155 hp). From standstill, it reaches 100 km/h in just 7 seconds. This gives it the best acceleration in its class and that without local emissions.
This makes the new Abarth 500e the fiercest accelerating Abarth 500 ever, surpassing even the Abarth 695. It is as much as 50 per cent faster on the intermediate sprint from 20 to 40 km/h. The new Abarth 500e is also faster on country roads, sprinting from 40 to 60 km/h in just 1.5 seconds. The fuel-engined Abarth 695 takes a second longer to do so. The all-electric Abarth 500e can also overtake faster than the 695. From 60 km/h, it reaches 100 km/h a second faster.
Ride the way you feel
In doing so, you can make use of three driving modes -Turismo, Scorpion Street and Scorpion Track- that let you choose how sporty you want to wriggle through traffic today. Turismo mode provides smoother acceleration and slightly lower power (max 100 kW (150 hp) instead of 113 kW (154 hp) and max 220 Nm of torque instead of 235 Nm) for an efficient but still exciting driving experience. Scorpion Street mode offers top performance, while regenerative braking remains maximum. And Scorpion Track mode is available for those in a real hurry.
To minimise charging time, the Abarth 500e features an 85 kW fast charging system. With this, the battery is already sufficiently recharged within five minutes for the average daily car journey (around 40 km). Even determining the next destination takes longer. And if you need to go further afield for once: with fast charging, the battery is charged to 80 per cent of its maximum capacity in just 35 minutes.
The roar
And finally: the sound. Because all well and good, an electric car may go that nice and fast, enjoying a nice petrol roar is out of the question. Or is it? Yep! Because the Abarth 500e is the first and only city car that can be fitted with the Sound Generator, for those who cannot and do not want to miss that unmistakable Abarth sound. This sound generator reproduces the sound of an Abarth petrol engine in sync with its performance and arouses all the emotions that every Abarthist looks for when driving an Abarth. Haleluja.
The Abarth 500e Scorpionissima is available from €44,000. Prices for other versions will be announced at a later date.
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