Fiat 600e Review (2023-present)

What is the Fiat 600e?

The Fiat 600 is a five-door hatchback-crossover-SUV blend that offers compact but practical family transport for buyers wanting the Fiat brand’s trademark cheeriness and style, but who’ve outgrown the dinky Fiat 500 city car. The 600e is the all-electric version of the car, which was the only version offered when it first went on sale, but the EV since been joined by mild hybrid petrol versions of the 600. We deal with the combustion-engined 600 in a separate review, so here, we concentrate solely on the 600e EV.

It gets a 54kWh lithium-ion battery with a usable capacity of 51kWh, for an official WLTP range of 252 miles. 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, not to mention a number of other small-car models produced by giant manufacturing conglomerate Stellantis, which owns and operates Fiat, Jeep, and many other brands besides.

At 4.17m long, the Fiat is a touch bigger and more focussed on practicality than the Jeep. 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’, or superminis like the Volkswagen Polo, and the ‘C segment’ , meaning hatchbacks like the Volkswagen Golf. We point this out because the Fiat is impressively practical for a relatively 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 isn't available on the entry-level (RED) version, only on mid-spec Icon and top-spec La Prima. That's a shame, because 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've made it standard across the range.

It’s also worth noting that while the 600e is more practical than most superminis, and is on a par with - if not better than - many traditional family hatchbacks, it’s also a very similar price to plenty of bigger and more spacious rivals including the MG4, VW ID.3 and Cupra Born.

Even so, taking into account the equipment and healthy electric range, as well as the interior practicality, the Fiat 600e is still a compelling prospect as a compact family car. It’s a nice place for the driver, too. The dashboard 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 dashboard 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 car to drive. The 154bhp electric motor sends power to the front wheels, and manages to deliver a 9.0sec 0-62mph sprint. This sounds a little tardy at first, but in practice, it's actually 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 to stop completely, and you have to then over-compensate at the end in bringing the car to a slightly jarring halt. This becomes less of a problem with familiarity, 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 on the drive selector, 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. While the petrol-powered 600 often feels jittery and unsettled, the electric version feels more civilised, perhaps due to the extra weight sitting on its springs.

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 pretty well, with only sharp-edged potholes sending heavy jarring through the car. On the 17-inch steel wheels of the 600e (RED) and Icon models, the Fiat may well be the softly sprung, cushy-riding car that the UK’s ruptured town roads need.

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. Higher-spec Icon and La Prima trims add 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 sunlight. 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 EV3 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 cheapest of the three trims available. Rear parking sensors, climate control, cruise control, LED headlights, automatic lights and wipers, keyless go, powered door mirrors, powered windows and that Uconnect infotainment system are highlights.

To that little lot, Icon trim adds styling enhancements inside and out, front parking sensors, a reversing camera, an adjustable boot floor, wireless phone charging and two extra speakers for the stereo (six in total).

The range-topping La Prima trim level adds further luxuries such as adaptive cruise control, blind spot warning, side parking sensors, heated front seats, power adjustment and massage function for the driver's seat, synthetic leather upholstery, power folding and heated door mirrors, automatic high-beam headlights, powered tailgate, wireless phone charging, a USB charger in the rear seats, 18-inch alloy wheels and 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

When the Fiat 600e first went on sale, it looked like fabulous value for money, not least because the number of small electric family runabouts on the market back then wasn't huge.

In subsequent times, however, this area of the car market has boomed, and there are now a great deal more small EV rivals offering a variety of different attributes at a variety of prices, many of them lower than that you'll pay for the Fiat.

That said, the Fiat's prices still look very competitive in the marketplace, even today, and few similarly priced rivals give you the amount of style or character that the Fiat does, so if that's what you're after, then it'll be well worth the cash.

Assuming that you pay for your domestic electricity at the UK's national average rate, a full home charge of the 600e's battery (which has a usable capacity of 51kWh) will cost you around £14. However, most owners are likely to charge overnight, and if that's the case with you, then get yourself on a variable domestic power tariff that charges less for off-peak power. The potential savings are huge, and the same charge could cost as little as £3 or £4 in such circumstances.

By contrast, charging at a DC public rapid charger will be way, way more expensive, and with a very average maximum rapid-charging speed of 100kW on the 600e, it won't be all that quick anyway.

No version of the 600e is expensive enough to get anywhere near the £40,000 price threshold that makes you liable for the 'luxury car surcharge' on VED car tax, so you'll only ever pay the standard rate, currently charged at £195 per year.

Insurance groupings for the 600e sit at groups 25 or 26 depending on trim level, and when such groupings run from 1 to 50, you can therefore expect very middling premiums.

Fiat 600e reliability

Fiat offers a three-year, 60,000-mile warranty on the car, while the high voltage battery system is covered for eight years and 100,000 miles. Both arrangements represent distinctly bog-standard cover.

The Fiat 600 as an entire range placed a fairly disappointing 24th out of 38 models considered in the Small SUV category of the most recent What Car? Reliability Survey. However, the published results don't make it clear what proportion - if any - of the sample of 600s included in the survey were all-electric versions.

As a brand, however, Fiat didn't exactly cover itself in glory, finishing 28th out of the 30 carmakers considered in the overall manufacturer standings.