Abarth 500e 2024 Review

Pricing for the 2024 Abarth 500e starts at $58,900 plus on-road costs, a $6400 premium over the Fiat 500e on which it is based.

The Scorpionissima launch edition, limited to 219 units for Australia (1949 worldwide for the year of Abarth’s founding), is a little more at $60,500 plus ORCs.

There are many excellent electric options at this price point. The latest Tesla Model 3 (from $61,900) for starters, but also the Volvo EX30 (from $59,990), BYD Seal (from $49,888) and Hyundai Kona EV (from $54,000).

However, it seems safe to assume that if you’re looking at an Abarth 500e you want something a little left-field and a bit sporty, so the main competition is probably the Cupra Born (from $59,990) or the forthcoming MINI Cooper SE – pricing for the new model hasn’t yet been released, but the previous one started from $64,975 plus ORCs.

Equipment levels have increased dramatically in the 2024 Abarth 500e in concert with the price tag.

Externally you’ll find 18-inch diamond-cut alloy wheels, a body kit, LED lights all round, a panoramic glass roof and the choice of five colours – white being standard, and black, green, blue and red costing an extra $900.

Other features include keyless entry/start, heated (manually-adjustable) sports seats, climate control, an Alcantara-clad steering wheel and auto lights and wipers.

Abarth only offers a three-year/150,000km warranty, though the battery has a separate eight-year/160,000km warranty.

Servicing will set you back $300 per visit every 12 months or 15,000km. Roadside assist is provided for three years.

ANCAP only rates the 2024 Abarth 500e as a four-star car (out of five) as its vulnerable road user protection (67 per cent) and ‘safety assist’ (67 per cent) fall short of the required standard, but its scores for adult (78 per cent) and child (79 per cent) occupant protection are decent.

There are six airbags, autonomous emergency braking (forward only), traffic sign recognition with intelligent speed control, lane keep and blind spot assist, along with 360-degree parking sensors and a rear camera.

A 10.25-inch infotainment screen features wireless smartphone mirroring and digital radio all playing through a JBL six-speaker stereo.

There is a wireless charging pad in addition to a pair of USB-A ports and a USB-C.

While it’s not the most intuitive or slickest unit around, it works reasonably well and most functions can be found fairly quickly.

This is in contrast to the 7.0-inch digital instrument display, which only has two obvious menu choices that hide a plethora of further options, some of which can only be toggled while stationary.

This will become important later.

Feeding the front wheels is a single electric motor producing 114kW/235Nm – 113.7kW to be precise – which can jet the 2024 Abarth 500e from 0-100km/h in 7.0sec according to the claim, though top speed is only 150km/h.

Still, plenty for this country.

A small car only needs a small battery so the 2024 Abarth 500e makes do with a 42kWh pack, roughly half what you’d find in most typical EVs.

As such, the WLTP range is only 253km with a claimed efficiency of 18.1kWh/100km.

Charge time on an 11kW AC socket is four hours and 15 minutes from 0-100 per cent, while a 0-80 per cent top-up at the 85kW DC maximum is claimed to take 35 minutes.

In our experience, an hour on a 50kW DC charger (while having some morning tea) pretty much filled the battery.

This isn’t something you can typically write about electric cars. Hop inside the 2024 Abarth 500e, hit the start button and it erupts with a vicious bark before settling into an angry idle. Meet the Abarth sound generator, which aims to give the 500e some of the aural character usually missing in EVs.

It will almost certainly elicit a smile and a giggle, but within two minutes the appeal has faded and within five you’ll be looking in earnest for the button to turn it off. But you won’t find it.

With no gears, at highway speeds the infernal buzz is like being trapped in a particularly loud light aircraft with no ear defenders and after 15 minutes of this experience I was ready to leave the car where it was and walk home.

Thankfully, a Google search revealed the process to turn it off, which includes being stationary and selecting ‘Display’ on the instrument panel (what the?) then into ‘electric features’ before you finally find the setting – why is there not a button on the dash?

Sound generator silenced, the Abarth 500e reveals itself to be a much more polished proposition than its petrol-powered predecessor.

The ride is still on the firm side and the rear can rebound abruptly over bigger bumps, but there’s enough compliance to make it liveable.

As such, it’s a zippy and enjoyable city car. It doesn’t feel particularly quick, especially in the standard Turismo drive mode as power is limited to 100kW/220Nm, the throttle is dulled and regenerative braking is wound up to allow for one-pedal driving.

Scorpion Street is a halfway house while Scorpion Track gives you the full whack and backs off the regen, subsequently feeling a lot sportier. Now the Abarth’s size and instant response allows it to plug gaps in traffic and quietly whoosh through the streets.

The news gets better. Despite the promise, previous Abarths didn’t really handle and weren’t that enjoyable to drive quickly, primarily due to their proportions (small, tall and narrow).

On the right road (read: smooth and twisty) the new Abarth 500e is really quite rapid and very enjoyable. One of the benefits of that small battery pack is low weight and 1335kg (tare) for an EV is definitely light.

Combine this with strong brakes, lots of grip and slowish but accurate enough steering and you can throw the 500e into bends. A mid-corner throttle lift even reveals some rear-end adjustability.

This praise does require some context, however. This dynamic performance is closer to the Suzuki Swift Sport end of the hot hatch scale and even a Hyundai i20 N is a much quicker and more enjoyable car, let alone price-point rivals.

The other issue is that while the 250-odd-kilometre claimed range is accurate (and plenty) for cruising around town, a short blat on some twisty roads (10 minutes or so) then a mixture of 80 and 100km/h highways back home dropped this to around 160km.

Therefore, if you want to attack some corners for any length of time you’re going to have to hope there’s a charger near your favourite road and factor in a charge on the way there (so as to arrive with plenty of juice) and on the way home.

Like the ride, the driving position of the new 2024 Abarth 500e is much improved. The seat is lower – and the seats themselves are pretty good – and the wheel can be closer; it’s still not perfect but no longer a pain.

Unfortunately, that’s about where the good news ends. There are some nice leather-trimmed sections on the arm rests but much of the 500e’s interior consists of cheap, hard, scratchy plastic and forward vision to the left is poor due to the rear-view mirror obstruction.

Obviously, the 500e is a very small car but the rear seats are so compromised you have to wonder why they are there. Even with the passenger seat all the way forward (rendering it useless), my two-year-old son barely had enough legroom in his car seat.

I sit quite close to the steering wheel, but even so the rear seat head restraint would catch on the front seat if you attempted to drop it to improve boot space.

The boot itself is okay. Small, obviously, but there’s enough space for the weekly shop, which is about all you could expect in a car like this.

This is a complicated question with a few different parts. If money is no object and you love the looks of the new 2024 Abarth 500e – and I wouldn’t blame you as it gets heaps of attention – you’ll have a fun and fashionable city runabout.

And given the relatively small price premium over the regular 500e, why not get the spicy one?

However, to be blunt, this is a $35,000 car with a $60,000 price tag.

Even compared to niche Euro sporty EV offerings it doesn’t stack up: the Cupra Born is much more practical with a nicer interior and DOUBLE the driving range, while the new Mini Cooper is the same – much nicer interior, better tech, more space, more range, though admittedly we haven’t driven it yet.

Expand the net wider and the verdict only gets worse. I jumped into the Abarth 500e out of the new Tesla Model 3 and the fact the two cars are roughly the same price beggars belief.

For $60,000, MG will sell you an MG4 XPOWER that does 0-100km/h in 3.8sec, while even the $39K MG4 base model is nicer to drive, more comfortable and infinitely more useable.

Abarth 500s have always been impractical but also fairly inexpensive and made up for it with the charm of its angry little engine.

Some of that charm remains but at this price point it’s difficult to make a cogent argument for it.

2024 Abarth 500e at a glance:
Price: $58,900 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Powertrain: Single permanent magnet synchronous motor
Output: 114kW/235Nm
Transmission: Single-speed reduction gear
Battery: 42kWh lithium-ion
Range: 253km (WLTP)
Energy consumption: 18.1kWh/100km (WLTP)
Safety rating: Four-star (ANCAP 2021)