Fiat 500 electric - long-term review

I recently spent a fair bit of time behind the wheel of a fresh-off-the-boat Tesla Model Y for our extremely ambitious ELEVEN-car electric crossover group test (Issue 359).

Now, we gave that car our ‘Best Hassle-Free EV’ award off the back of that bonanza, and living with the Model Y for a week led me to another revelation – not just about our little Fiat I hasten to add, but about most EVs that don’t come from the mind of Mr Musk.

We all know how good Tesla’s Supercharger network is. It makes life with an EV simpler and speedier, hence the gong in the TG Electric Awards. But what’s sometimes overlooked is just how much genuinely useful tech Tesla puts into even its most affordable family cars…

I’m not talking about the lane assist, the fancy cruise control or any of the active safety systems – the 500 has all of those in some form or another. No, what really sold the Tesla to me was the knock-off Mario Kart game Beach Buggy Racing 2 and the fact that I could watch Netflix on a proper, high-definition screen whilst charging. I don’t think I’ve ever felt less like a serious roadtester.

I used to think these things were all Fart Mode-style gimmicks, but the more time I spent in the Model Y the more it annoyed me that other manufacturers spend so long working on over-eager emergency braking systems at the expense of in-car tech that actually makes our lives more enjoyable.

Honda had a crack at it with the fish tank app in the all-electric e, and that also had a three-pin plug under the dash that meant at least you could plug in a laptop while you waited for some extra juice. But checking your emails while hot-spotting data from your phone is hardly as fun as using the car’s actual steering wheel to jump a virtual Model 3 around a cartoon beach resort, is it?

Fiat is what Tesla fans on the internet like to call a ‘legacy’ car manufacturer. It’s gammon. And it’s too afraid to have a bit of fun. We’ll spend a lot of time plugged-in during our all-electric future, and all the Fiat offers is a DAB radio and some screens that tell you how fast the electricity is flowing in. Useful, but it’s certainly not as entertaining as the latest episode of Too Hot To Handle.