The Fiat 500e is cute, right-sized and just under $40k before incentives
My favourite EV (on paper) is finally on its way to Canada
Will the Fiat 500e get the attention and support it deserves?
I am not a car reviewer, and I have only the specifications of the vehicle to go on, but this car appears to finally fill a vital gap in the Canadian EV market — a practical, inexpensive car for city-dwellers. Sadly, only BC and Quebec can even pre-order, though as far as I can tell essentially the same car has been selling well in Europe for two years already. No sign of when it will be available elsewhere in Canada (the only dealer listed by Fiat here in Newfoundland has not sold Fiats for years apparently).
Why might this be my favourite EV yet? Because it has the courage to be “good enough”. Though notionally a four seater, most Canadians would find it cramped to use it regularly with more than two passengers… but there are millions of singles and couples for whom this would be fine. It has a claimed range of 240km - well below the typical range of a new EV here, but since the average Canadian drives fewer than 60km a day, this is still plenty.
Compare it to the Tesla Model Y, currently the leading EV in Canada. Even its entry level model is about 1.5 times heavier, and has a battery proportionately bigger to give that car its 350km range (to its credit, it’s pretty remarkable that the Tesla manages to be as energy efficient as the much smaller Fiat). But even after recent price cuts the Model Y still costs at least $13,000 more than the announced price of the Fiat 500e (and most Canadians apparently prefer to buy the AWD long range variant costing $10,000 more than that). The subcompact is obviously “less car”, but that’s the point.
Carmakers naturally want you to believe you need to buy bigger, longer-ranged cars, but anyone who has spent time outside North America will soon find most people there appear happy with smaller vehicles (or without cars at all)… Much is said about how EVs are too pricey, but if Autotrader is to be believed, the average price of a new Canadian car is already well above that of the Fiat 500e. In fact, with incentives it may be even be cheaper than the average used car! (And of course it’ll be much cheaper to run).
If you are wondering whether a 240km range would be enough for your urban commute and the odd camping trip, why not “test drive” a few journeys using a tool like https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?
Apart from the lower price and the smaller burden on the planet needed to produce these cars there are at least two other practical benefits of this kind of EV. Firstly, its small size should make it easy to park and manoeuvre in crowded cities. And while its 85kW maximum charging speed means it can’t take full advantage of the fastest 350kW highway chargers, the relatively small battery size means that even on the 50kW DC chargers still common in parts of Canada a typical charging session would take a half hour. If you are unlucky enough to be stuck behind an F-150 Lightning charging at the same type of charger (as I was over the summer), it can take them an hour and a half to two hours for them to “fill their tank”.
Anyway, if you have had the opportunity to try out a 500e in Europe, let me know. Given the limited availability here in Canada I may have to go there to check one out for myself!
