Abarth 500e review

If you’ve driven the regular, electric Fiat 500, it’s all fairly familiar looking in here. The seat is higher than you might expect (it adjusts, if pointlessly), but the pedals and steering wheel address you comfortably. And the huge seat clenches your body, without depriving you of cushioning.

What about the tech?

Ahead, the 7.0-inch instrument cluster cycles through a good choice of layouts. Trip computer, stereo and navigation can all find a home there, but we mostly reverted to the nice round combi-clock showing speed, power use and regeneration.

The centre 10.25-inch touchscreen is comprehensive and again easy to set up to your personal priorities. It runs a 320-watt JBL branded audio as standard.

Those smart graphics, plus neat rows of finger-friendly switches for climate and transmission, raise the apparent level of quality as well as useability. So we won't bang on about the hard plastics on the console, dash and doors. The Turismo trim adds a cushioned Alcantara strip on the dash, which lifts it some more.

And what’s the space like?

It's cramped, if you’re not in the front. Those big sporty seats burgle space from the rear. If an average adult is driving, no one older than about 10 is going to be able to sit properly in the back. Only two seatbelts back there anyway. It's a coupe.

Boot space, as you’d expect, is minimal at 185 litres seats up, and 550 litres seats down. That’s bigger than the Honda e (RIP), though smaller than the Mini Cooper Electric. There’s no frunk to store your dirty charging cables, so those have to live in the back too.

The hatch opens up like a letterbox thanks to the travel of the fabric roof, and doing your weekly shop feels like you’re putting the bags through one. To be fair, those rear seats are more useful for carrying bags than they are for people.