Fiat 600e Review (2023-present)
Fiat 600e cars for sale
4.0
Expert review
Pros
Practical inside without being too big on the outside
Comfortable ride
Attractively priced
Cons
An MG4 is cheaper and bigger
Limited number of trims won't suit everybody
Options list could be longer
The CarGurus verdict
The Fiat 600e is one of the most recommendable electric family cars. That it’s more compact than traditional family hatchbacks can be an asset to many motorists, given that you can still get a couple of kids and their paraphernalia in relatively easily. It’s efficient and has a decent range, it’s comfortable and confident to drive, and it’s well-priced. Sure, the MG4 is bigger and even better value, but the MG makes everything else look expensive in the electric family car classes, and the Fiat 600e is closest to matching it for range, practicality and equipment. So, it’s not the most fun to drive, and it’s not the best value in its class, which is why it doesn’t earn five stars overall. But as an overall proposition, the Fiat 600e is one of our favourite family EVs.
What is the Fiat 600e?
The new Fiat 600e is a five-door hatchback-crossover blend, that offers a compact but practical electric family car for buyers wanting the Fiat brand’s trademark cheeriness and style; it’s the car for those people who’ve grown out of the dinky, electric Fiat 500 city car.
In fact, the Fiat 600e is a direct replacement for the Fiat 500X, but the 500X will continue to be sold alongside the 600e for a few years. There will also be a full hybrid Fiat 600 (this technology is also known as ‘self-charging’ hybrid), which will do short bursts of electric-only driving at lower speeds, rather like you get in the Toyota Corolla and Toyota Yaris Cross.
Here, we’re focussing on the 600e with its pure electric powertrain, which will be the first version to reach dealerships. It gets a 54kWh lithium-ion battery with a usable capacity of 51kWh, for an official WLTP range of 254 miles in the cheaper Fiat 600e (RED), and 252 miles in the higher spec Fiat 600e La Prima. In terms of real-world driving range, we’d expect to see around 170-210 miles per charge in winter, while summer range will be more like 200-240 miles.
It’s based on the same platform as the Jeep Avenger – which is another car produced by Stellantis, the automotive giant which owns many brands including Fiat - but, at 4.17m long, the Fiat is a touch bigger and more focussed on practicality. It also has a very different style, with the Jeep being blocky and rather aggressive-looking, while the 600 is all Fiat 500-inspired curves. It even appears to be batting its eyelashes at you.
How practical is it?
The Fiat 600e sits in between two distinct classes of car – the ‘B segment’ superminis like the Peugeot 208, and ‘C segment’ hatchbacks like the Volkswagen Golf. We point this out, because the Fiat is very practical for a compact car, and the fact that it is a genuinely small car is one of its great strengths. You get very similar interior roominess to the VW Golf, for instance, so two adults or two chunky car seats in the back seats will be no problem. The middle rear seat is also surprisingly comfy thanks to a wider seat squab than most rivals offer, although a low centre tunnel in the floor eats into foot space.
The 360 litres of boot space will be fine for a single buggy or medium-sized dog, but the variable boot floor is only standard on the La Prima; a shame, as it creates some useful underfloor cable storage, and also raises the boot floor to be flush with the load lip and folded 60/40 split rear seat backs. It makes such a difference to practicality, for such a basic feature, that Fiat really should really make it standard across the range.
It’s also worth noting that while the 600e is much more practical than any supermini, and is on a par if not better than many traditional family hatchbacks, it’s also the same price as plenty of bigger and more spacious rivals including the MG4, VW ID.3 and Cupra Born.
Even so, taking into account the equipment and a healthy electric range, as well as the interior practicality, the Fiat 600e is still a compelling prospect as a family car. It’s a nice place for the driver, too. The dash looks smart and is tactile and feels solidly built in all the important areas, even if the plastics are a bit scratchy and cheap-feeling lower down the cabin. A body-coloured insert dominates the design, or you get contrasting matte ivory finish in the top-spec La Prima. Overall it’s a smart yet straightforward dash that also has convenient, physical air-con controls.
The driving position is good, with enough adjustment for most to get comfortable. You even get electric adjustment and massage function as standard for the driver’s seat in the Fiat 600e La Prima trim, and the leatherette upholstery with contrasting Fiat logos stitched into them look really cool.
What’s it like to drive?
The Fiat 600e is a pleasant, comfortable drive. The 154bhp electric motor sends power to the front wheels, and manages to deliver a 9.0sec 0-62mph sprint, which sounds tardy but in practice is more than fast enough. With plenty of low-down torque, the 600e feels punchy at town speeds.
With light but predictable steering, it’s wieldy around town and feels really well-suited to muddling around tight roads and awkward streets, with progressive accelerator pedal response helping to make progress smooth. The brake response is smooth enough, too, although it’s fairly easy to find that you’ve underestimated the brake pressure you need, only to then over-compensate and bring the car to a slightly jarring halt. With familiarity that’s not a problem, and the recuperative braking is mild and very easy to forget about altogether in its default mode. You can make it much stronger by selecting ‘B’ mode, for predictable but strong brake regen that’s ideal for around town – even if it’s not the one-pedal mode that you get in the Nissan Leaf and MG4.
There’s a fair bit of body lean in faster corners, but everything about the Fiat feels composed and confident, with plenty of grip (in the dry conditions we’ve tried it in) and confident handling. It’s no sports hatch, and the MG4 or Cupra Born are more fun, but the Fiat feels secure and satisfying whether you’re guiding it through the city or enjoying some faster roads.
Ride comfort is a strong point, too. We’ve only driven the La Prima, which comes on 18-inch alloy wheels, but it soaks up rough surfaces and high frequency intrusions in the road very well, with only sharp-edged potholes sending heavy jarring through the car. On the 16-inch steel wheels of the 600e (RED), the Fiat may well be the very softly sprung, cushy-riding car that the UK’s ruptured town roads needs.
Technology, equipment & infotainment
Every Fiat 600e gets a 10.25-inch colour touchscreen system complete with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, digital radio, Bluetooth and over-the-air software updates. La Prima trim adds in-built TomTom satnav with charger search functionality.
It’s a good infotainment system that benefits from configurable shortcuts on the home page, but more importantly makes it easy to hop between the core functions, and the graphics are clear and easy to see even in bright sun. It’s not as advanced as the Google in-built software that you get with the Renault Megane E-Tech, and the graphics and screen size on the Kia Soul EV are better, too, but the Fiat’s system is still up-to-date and easy to use.
You get reasonable equipment on the 600e (RED), which is the cheaper of the two trims available. Parking sensors, climate control, cruise control, LED headlights and that Uconnect infotainment system are highlights. Even so, most buyers will go for the La Prima despite the hefty £4,000 price jump, because it adds adaptive cruise control, blind spot warning, keyless entry, heated seats, powered tailgate and steering wheel, electric driver’s seat with massage function, wireless phone charging, a USB charger in the rear seats, 18-inch alloy wheels and noticeably upgraded style features inside and out.
There’s also a smartphone app that allows you to remotely control and monitor the Fiat 600e’s charging, as well as pre-set the cabin temperature to be ready for when you leave.
Fiat 600e running costs
We seriously considered giving the Fiat 600e five stars for this section. In (RED) trim it’s really well priced, especially for an electric car that’s got such usable interior room, matched with decent real-world range and efficiency.
For some idea of fuel costs, we’d expect to see around 3.5m/kWh as an overall average across the year for the Fiat 600e (we saw 4.3m/kWh in varied summer driving, which will deliver a 220-mile real world driving range). Charging up at home on a standard domestic tariff of 40p/kWh means that you’ll be paying just over 11p per mile, or if you can charge on a low-cost overnight tariff then that could well drop to under 3p per mile. Rapid charging on a public charger is much more expensive, and costs vary drastically, but as a rough estimate, a public rapid charge will typically result in fuel costs of around 16-20p per mile.
For context, currently a petrol car doing 40mpg will cost 17p per mile, or a diesel car doing 55mpg will cost 13p per mile, so running an electric car is still much cheaper if you routinely charge at home.
When it comes to list price, the Fiat looks good value. Most obvious alternatives – while bigger – are also quite a bit more expensive, including the Citroen e-C4, Peugeot e-2008, VW ID.3 and Kia Soul EV.
So, equipment and list price is well in the Fiat’s favour, but rivals like the MG4 still offer better performance and range for a similar price. Many will feel like they’re being forced into the much higher-priced La Prima just to get extras like heated seats and keyless entry.
Even so, the Fiat is one of the best-priced family electric cars on the market, and we’d recommend it if purchase price is a key priority.
Fiat 600e reliability
Fiat offers a three year warranty on the car, while the high voltage battery system is covered for eight years and 100,000 miles – both of which are fairly standard cover.
The Fiat 600e is too new to have been subject to any owner surveys, and the new e-CMP2 platform that it’s based on also has major new mechanicals including new electric motor and slightly different battery, so it’s difficult to gauge reliability from other Stellantis products.
Even so, there’s a good chance that the new Fiat 600e will prove to be more reliable than other petrol or diesel Fiat models, which placed it a disappointing 30th out of 32 brands included in the 2022 What Car? Used car reliability survey (which rates cars of at least three years old on reliability alone). Here’s hoping that the 600e, which brings an all-new platform and tech to the Fiat brand, can improve its reliability standing.
- The Fiat 600e will charge at up to 100kW, which is good for a 100-mile top-up in around 20 minutes from a powerful enough rapid charger, or a 10-80% charge in around 35 minutes. It also gets 11kW AC charging, but you’ll need three-phase electrical system in your property to support an 11kW home charger, and most domestic residences in the UK have single phase, which can support 7kW at most. If you’re lucky enough to have access to an 11kW charger (more often found on commercial or industrial sites), the 600e will charge in around five hours. But for most electric car drivers in the UK, who’ll charge on their driveway at night, a full top-up will take under nine hours.
- Fiat announced in summer 2023 that it wouldn’t do grey cars any more: grey is much too boring for such a flamboyant, cheery Italian brand. But let’s not ignore the elephant-grey Fiat 600e in the room, here, which is painted in ‘Sand – ‘Earth of Italy.’ A shade that looks distinctly, well, grey. Still, most of the available colours are bright oranges, reds, blues and greens, and they do look great.
- Some rivals, such as MG, Kia and Hyundai, offer ‘vehicle to device’ charging with their electric vehicles, also known as ‘vehicle to load’. This means that you can use your car’s battery as a huge, portable charging device that you can plug your portable fridge, laptop, or any other electric device into. Great for when you’re camping, or for anyone who charges portable tools regularly. Sadly, Stellantis – the parent manufacturer that owns Fiat, Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Jeep and more – currently doesn’t have plans to introduce this technology.
- If you want the best value: Stick with the Fiat 600e (RED), as it gets all the basic equipment most people will need and is good value for a family EV with such a decent range. However, it is really frustrating that you can’t even add a few choice options, such as heated seats. You’ll have to pay extra for any colour other than white, too. Not red, as you might assume given the overly grammatical (RED) trim name, which is actually in reference to a global aid charity run by Bono, and which is supported by Fiat.
- If you want the best family car: Go for La Prima trim, as it gets a charging socket in the rear, the variable height boot floor and keyless entry – all useful features for a family car. The synthetic leather upholstery will be conveniently wipe-clean, too.
- If you want the best looking: It’s got to be the Fiat 600e La Prima, with its 18-inch alloys, contrasting black ‘side skirts’ with chrome badging, privacy glass and more. Plus, you get Orange ‘Sun of Italy’ paint as standard, which is a bright, coral-orange colour that really stands out. The other colour options come in at £500 each.
