Fiat’s retro 500 really is embracing the old this time. The automaker has confirmed that it’s turning its current all-electric 500e into a hybrid to help offset lackluster demand for the EV. The 500e will continue to be offered as a fully electric vehicle, but less than two years from now it’ll be joined by a hybrid sister created by reverse-engineering the EV to accommodate combustion power. Fiat says the new car, called 500 Ibrida, will be launched “between late 2025 and early 2026.”
Even the earlier of those dates can’t come
soon enough because Fiat is dropping the current 17-year-old ICE 500 after this
summer. The Panda-based hatch, which dates back to 2007 is still incredibly
popular with buyers, but it’s less loved by regulators who say it doesn’t meet
with new EU cybersecurity laws coming into force this year. Those same laws
have also forced Porsche to axe the combustion-powered Macan in Europe.
Fiat could have updated the elderly 500 to
meet the new regs at huge expense, but instead its opted to adapt the far more
sophisticated 500e and build the two models at its Mirafirori plant in Turin
Italy. The 500e is already produced at Mirafiori, but sluggish demand for the
EV means the factory is severely underutilized, so this new plan also sorts
Fiat’s capacity problem. The current ICE-powered 500 is built in Tcyhy, Poland.
Fiat hasn’t yet revealed any images of the
Turin-built 500 Ibrida, but has revealed a special Italy-only edition of the EV
named after the famous factory, the 500e Mirafiori. The
convertible comes with a choice of 42 kWh or 23.8 kWh batteries, 360° drone
view parking assistance system, a 320-watt JBL sound system and chrome accents.
