Fiat 600 review

It’s all very sensible behind the wheel of the 600e – don’t expect the drive to match up to any of the perky fun of the exterior. Like the electric 500 it would be a solid entry into EV life. It stops, goes and there’s no fussing with different electric drive settings and regen. You’ve got Eco, Normal and Sport modes that do exactly what they say on the dashboard (not the 500e's Normal, Range and Sherpa modes, weirdly, but Stellantis already had the buttons made up). 

The 600e is very much on par with its siblings from the Stellantis stable – a solid, reasonably efficient EV that will slot fairly easily into (small) family life. Sporty? No. Sport mode is too spiky for town use, although it does come into its own on a smooth flowing A-road.

But it’s comfortable though?

Yes, pretty much. The 600e's softish suspension does have a good appetite for big bumps and dips, mostly without getting too floaty. Corrugations will reveal some shudder, a want of high-frequency damping, but it's no disgrace. And road noise is well coddled away.

Anything you don’t like?

If we’re being picky (and it is our job we suppose), then the steering is overly light, the only feedback from the wheel being the strong self-centring sensation and occasionally the lane keep assist. 

Likewise the pedal feel on the brakes isn’t great, the car doesn’t manage a smooth transition between regen and the real thing. We found ourselves popping the car into B mode to get maximum retardation and leaving the jerky stop on the brakes to the last second. It’s probably the sort of thing that will be fine once you’ve got used to the car a bit. 

Our first go in the UK was on greasy roads on a cold day and the torque steer was pretty terrible – a neat tribute to overpowered hot hatches of the early 2000s, if Fiat was continuing the retro theme. Again, Eco mode is the solution to all your ills, just take away the power until there isn’t enough to flummox the front wheels.

How good is the range? 

You’ll get 254 WLTP miles for the small-wheeled Red and a smidge fewer – 252 – for the La Prima model, your two spec options. Both come with a heat pump as standard, to reduce loss in winter.

Charge time is just over eight hours from 0 per cent to 100 on a normal 7.4kW AC outlet. If you can only get a 3.7kW at home, that doubles, of course. It actually accepts three-phase too, but only at 11kW, so the improvement isn't transformative: five hours 45 minutes.

DC charging peaks at 100kW. But only peaks: it slows as the battery fills. So it's 27 minutes from 20 to 80 per cent. If real world range is 200 miles, that means adding 60 per cent of that, or 132 miles in 27 minutes. That's OK rather than brilliant.

What are my options if I hate electricity?

A) A 1.2-litre, three-cylinder turbo petrol engine matched to a dual-clutch six speed automatic gearbox, a small electric motor and an even smaller battery producing a grand total of 98bhp, or B) the same but with 134bhp, or C) counselling because spoiler alert: electricity is kinda everywhere.

We’ve tested the 98bhp hybrid 600 – called 100HP – and it’s… alright, actually. It’s not going to be making Koenigsegg Jeskos sweat with a 0-62mph time of 10.9s and top speed of 114mph, but for its intended purpose of swatting about the city and occasionally venturing beyond it, it’s more than punchy enough. Even makes a pleasing three-pot thrum when you really lean on it. Which you won’t.

That e-motor can power the car all on its lonesome for an entire 0.6 miles and will dip in and out depending on the battery charge level. And because the battery’s tiny, it charges quickly via the brakes and when you get off the throttle.

The integration betwixt engine and battery, and the six-speed ‘box itself, is on the whole very well sorted and smooth, adding to the 600’s ethos of just being sort of… ‘there’. The self-charging happens without any massive drama, ditto the actual driving manners.

If you need more haste, the 136HP car offers a 0-62mph time of 8.5s and top speed of 124mph.