Fiat 500E EV- Minimalist Car

Would you take into account an electrical automotive in case your lease cost have been $999 down and $199 per 30 days for 36 months? And if the dealership had a particular hotline you would name to untangle confusion regarding costs, incentives, and more? What if, each year of your lease, you acquired 12 days’ use of a gas-powered car? And if there were a smartphone app that might communicate the automobile’s cost stage, management charging, help discover charging stations, and warmth or cool your car whereas it was still plugged in? Suppose that electric car drove very very similar to its gasoline counterpart besides quieter? And actually, do you drive greater than 87 miles each day? If this sounds peachy-and you reside in California-Fiat has an electrical 500E waiting together with your title on it.


Get Down with the Down Low

The 2013 500E moves under the power of a three-phase AC synchronous motor that delivers 111 horses and 147 lb-ft of torque to the front wheels via a single-speed transmission. Energy is stored in a 642-pound, liquid-cooled (and heated), 24-kWh lithium-ion battery pack that lives under the floor between the side rails. The flat pack stretches from the front seats to 10 inches shy of the rear bumper.
One could make the case that Bosch deserves a badge on this car, as the firm provides the battery (cells by Samsung), the battery packaging, the management software, the electric motor, and the regenerative braking system. Fiat calls the braking fully blended, so that, when you’re coasting or braking, the motor is recovering every electron possible and shoving it back into the battery. This only lessens when the battery is full or if the car is traveling slower than 8 mph. At that point, the car reverts to conventional friction braking. The regen also shuts off during full-ABS panic stops.

Overall weight gain stands at some 600 pounds over a regular 500, which places the 500E dangerously close to the 3000-pound mark. It was this extra poundage that motivated engineers to use the flattened battery shape to mount the pack down low in the car, where the weight is less deleterious to handling. There are other alterations, including a reworked body structure that is said to be 10 percent more rigid, much stiffer springs, and a heavy-duty rear axle shared with the hotted-up 500 Abarth. The 500E rides on 15-inch Firestone Firehawk GT low-rolling-resistance tires.

The regular Fiat 500’s top-level Lounge trim provides a guide to the 500E’s equipment, which includes automatic climate control, remote keyless entry, USB and iPod connectivity, a stand-alone TomTom navigation unit, and heated front seats. Besides choosing your exterior color from among black, white, gray, silver, and Arancio Electrico (shockingly bright orange), the only notable option is an e-Sport package that adds black trim for the headlamps, taillamps, and turn signals; orange side-mirror caps; orange side graphics; and staggered-width 15-inch black-and-orange wheels.


How It’s Different

All this is applied to a 500 that has been tweaked aesthetically from the standard model. Although aerodynamic efficiency was the first priority, the result just might be cuter than the original. Fiat designers spent 140 hours in the wind tunnel, often with clay and trowel in hand, cutting drag by a claimed 13 percent and interior sound levels by 20 percent. The reshaping served to boost highway-speed range by about five miles, the company says. New stuff includes the front and rear lower fascias, the wheels, the rear spoiler, the side sills, and the mirror caps. Fiat used adjectives such as “aggressive,” “athletic,” and “masculine” when describing the 500E, words rarely heard around electric cars. Or any Fiat 500 this side of an Abarth, for that matter. Fiat 500 owners will spot a few major interior differences in the 500E, including a new and far-less-fussy central gauge pod, four buttons in place of a traditional gear lever, an oblong goiter on the dashboard, and revised vehicle info on the TomTom nav system. The 500E’s instrument panel now houses a full-color display that shows speed, battery level, power flow, range, and "trending" arrows that note whether you’ve been naughty or nice with power use. The oblong thing is a light that illuminates when charging so you can tell from 50 feet away whether your car is sucking juice.
The charging time from lowest level to full is four hours on 240 volts, or roughly 24 hours on 120. When the 500E is topped up, Fiat claims a range of more than 100 city miles, or 87 miles combined. In terms of mpge, the EPA rates the car for 122 mpge in the city, 108 mpge on the highway, and 116 mpge combined. We estimate that acceleration to 60 mph, thanks in part to full torque being available from 0 rpm, would take 8.9 seconds, or about a second quicker than the base 500. Top speed stands at 85 mph.
The traffic and the roads we have been on restricted us to less than eighty five mph, but in the mode of a torquey diesel, the 500E feels quicker than it's when accelerating. You possibly can hustle up a freeway ramp and simply circulate into site visitors, accompanied only by the thrum of the tires and whoosh of the wind. In reality, other than the lack of inner-combustion noises, the 500E feels very very similar to its common counterpart. Fiat has achieved a good job masking the transition from regenerative to friction braking. On our drive, we discovered one of the best clue to the switchover to be the energy-movement dial on the TomTom unit. That dial is joined by two others, one that exhibits how much energy is being consumed by the local weather management and another that shows how a lot power is being used by the car's other systems. We favor these readouts to the equally informative displays found in, say, Ford hybrids, as a result of the Fiat’s look more businesslike and sit simply out of your line of sight. The unit also displays the location of charging stations and your driving vary by way of a circle around your present position. Of course, if the TomTom system isn’t wanted or you’re not interested within the readouts, you possibly can pop it off the dash and stow it.


Ah, Yes, That Old Friend: Range Anxiety

Most electric cars are used as urban scooters, but we drove the 500E on winding Mulholland Drive and Old Topanga Canyon Road near L.A. Here, again, the car feels like its siblings, with decent turn-in and appropriately weighted steering for its size. You can feel the car coping with the extra weight, however, and there’s no hiding the stiffer suspenders, although they’re not overly harsh. In fact, we were having a pretty good time—until we found ourselves at the top of a canyon with only 20 miles of range left. So, yeah, range anxiety. But in this particular situation, heading downhill on twisting roads, we were able to add range, using trail braking to keep the car regenerating while maintaining momentum. We weren’t watching the speedo but rather battery capacity and range. Back into traffic on Pacific Coast Highway, we again blended in among the fuel burners, not horsing the 500E for maximum energy saving and using only those accessories we needed. When we arrived at our destination, we'd only dipped from 41- to 38-percent battery capacity and driven the displayed available range up to 32 miles. In a limited-use car such as this, you have to take your fun where you find it. As mentioned, you’ll have to go looking for this particular brand of fun in California, the sole market in which the Mexican-built 500E will be available. (Non-Californians, being limited to easily refueled, gas-fired Cinquecentos, really aren’t so limited after all.) Rebates available in various Golden State cities can significantly cut the lease price from that $999 down and $199 per month, although we should point out that a base Nissan Leaf, a more practical EV with only slightly less range, currently carries 36-month lease pricing of $1999 down and $199 per month. The 500E’s purchase price is $32,500 before factoring in any tax rebates or incentives; a Leaf starts at $29,650 before rebates. But the Nissan isn’t nearly as fun to look at or drive as the Fiat. Urban-scooter aficionados take note.

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