Review: Abarth 500e Convertible

In a rare stroke of luck rather than good judgment, our road test of the Abarth 500e Convertible coincided with the start of the June heatwave in the UK.

The only snag was that a 450-mile round trip to Brighton was on the cards. Should we trust the electric Abarth and risk running out of power at a crucial moment or slum it in our elderly Fiat Punto without air conditioning?

The Abarth won out and after a bit of research as to likely ‘fuel’ stops off we went.

As most of the journey was on motorways we expected the range to be less than ideal. And, as having the top down was not really an option, the air conditioning worked overtime. Add that to the infotainment system belting out full blast, the phone on wireless charge, the sat nav being deployed and, for the last couple of hours, the headlights on.

A quick calculation for the journey down came up with 211 travelled and 256 miles of range used with three stopovers. At all three charging stations, we were only there for around 30 minutes which gave us about 80 miles of worry-free motoring.

The Abarth is a front-wheel drive electric hot hatch - the first of its kind. Compared to the Fiat 500e on which it is based, it is more powerful, has a stiffer suspension and a better cabin. It also has a rather fetching scorpion badge, although, if it were mine, I’d be worried someone may take a shine to it and prise it off.

Like the Fiat 500e it has a 42kWh battery but because the motor is more powerful the range drops to a potential 151 miles against 200 for the Fiat.

The Abarth also has more of a kick to it than the Fiat with 36 extra horses under the bonnet and a 0-62mph time of seven seconds - two quicker than the Fiat - but still not blistering by hot hatch standards.

When you first power up the Abarth it makes a weird noise which reminded me of the opening note of The Bluebells song Young At Heart and it stuck in my head for the entire week like an annoying earworm. And instead of being quiet, like most electric cars, it has a generator to make it sound like a petrol engine. You can opt to turn it off though.

It’s lovely to drive with sharp handling and a firm suspension. The bucket seats are supportive and very comfortable. A fact we were thankful for after six hours behind the wheel.

The fold-down canvas roof is more of a large sunroof than anything with door pillars and roof structure remaining in place when it is folded down. It opens and closes quickly enough and on the way home we had it down most of the time despite blasting up the M1.

Like the Fiat, the boot is tiny and the back seats difficult to access but we still managed to cram in our luggage for three days.

The Abarth 500e convertible costs £36,985.

Abarth 500e

Price: £36,985

Battery capacity: 42kwh

Power: 154bhp

Torque: 173lb/ft

Transmission: Automatic

Top speed: 96mph

0-62mph: 7 seconds

CO 2 emissions:0

EV range: 151 WLTP