Right, pay attention now. Back in 2007, Fiat revived the 500, and the car was an instant success for its coochie-coo retro looks and affordability. In 2020, an all-electric replacement for that car, the 500e, arrived, although the old combustion model stayed on sale for a while afterwards.
The ageing 2007 car finally died last year, but amid a general slowdown in EV demand, Fiat wasn’t finding enough buyers for the new electric one, so it’s now re-engineered it to take the mild hybrid powertrain from that old car. Basically, this is a new new Fiat 500 with the engine from an old new Fiat 500. Following?
Fiat 500 Hybrid – interior
Okay, none of this really matters, because the new 500 Hybrid is, in the year 2025, a new A-segment city car with a manual gearbox, and that alone is enough for us to be interested in it.
We first found out it would be getting a manual a few months ago when Fiat showed some pictures of a lightly disguised prototype, but this is the finished product. That six-speed manual, sprouting from the dash like it should in a small Fiat, is paired up with the same 1.0-litre three-cylinder and 12V hybrid system you got in the old 500 and Panda Hybrids.
Fiat 500 Hybrid hatch – side
Fiat hasn’t given us any more in-depth numbers yet, but in those old cars, the setup produced 69bhp and 68lb ft, and we wouldn’t expect that to change much, if at all, in this new one.
It looks basically identical to the 500e on the outside, and save for that funny lever coming out of the dash, the interior’s pretty much the same, too. That includes a 10.25-inch central infotainment screen and a 7-inch rectangular digital instrument display, still slightly awkwardly shoved into a circular cowling.
Fiat 500 Hybrid hatch and Cabrio – rear
Entering production at Fiat’s famous but currently rather underutilised Mirafiori factory in Turin this November, the 500 Hybrid will be available as either a hatch or a Cabrio. Pricing’s yet to be announced, but we imagine it’ll undercut the £25,035 entry point of a 500e. So, remembered how to use a clutch pedal?
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