2024 Fiat 500e Brings Adorable EV City Car to Our Shores

The electrified 500 is finally coming to Canada and the US early next year.

It's really happening: Fiat early Tuesday confirmed the North American specs for the 2024 Fiat 500e. What started with an unannounced display at the 2022 New York Auto Show has become the brand's electrified return to form on these shores. The little city car arrives in Stellantis North American showrooms early 2024.

This generation of 500 has been on sale in Europe for a few years now. Longer and wider than the last iteration, it's nonetheless still a) petite and b) immediately identifiable as a Fiat 500. Still a two three-door, four-seat hatchback, the 500 features LED lighting at both ends, a sizeable rear spoiler, and pretty 17-inch alloy wheels. The bright red hue isn't a coincidence; the 500e will initially launch as a (Red) Edition, so every purchase will translate into a donation to the Global Fund.

Inside, the cabin sees yet more splashes of red all along the dashboard as well as the seat piping—check out the retro embossing pattern on the seats. A simple two-spoke, flat-bottom steering wheel is meant to evoke the original 500. The dashboard is very simple, but Fiat has managed to keep a few physical controls, not least of which is the push-button shifter located beside the wheel.

A 10.25-inch central touchscreen runs Uconnect 5, which means wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, plus Amazon Alexa support. There's also a wireless charger. The system does include unique tweaks for 500e duty however, including a specialized welcome chime. Going one step further, Fiat has even brought in composers Flavio Ibba and Marco Gualdi to craft "The sound of 500," a song that plays for pedestrians as part of the Acoustic Vehicle Alert System (AVAS). Take that, whirring Toyota hybrids!

While Europe sees two different battery capacities, North America will see just the larger, 42.0-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion setup. With modest outputs of 118 horsepower and 162 pound-feet of torque going through the front wheels, Fiat estimates a single-charge range of 149 miles (240 kilometers). There are three drive modes: Normal and Range sound simple enough, and the latter activates one-pedal driving. Sherpa is an even more extreme Range mode: it knocks the max speed down to 50 mph (80 km/h) and reduces motor power, amongst other things.

DC fast-charging tops out at 85 kW, which Stellantis says should enable five-minute boosts of 31 miles (50 km), or 35 minutes to do the 10–80 percent metric. An 11-kW Level 2 setup should completely recharge a battery in 255 minutes. US buyers will receive either a home charger box or charge credits through Stellantis' Free2Move program.

The brand is proud to call the roughly 3,000-pound (1,361-kilogram) 500e "the lightest passenger BEV in the segment." Unless Mini has managed to double battery capacity (58.4 kWh) of its own small EV hatchback while chopping weight for 2025, Fiat should hold onto that crown for a while.

Fiat isn't launching this nuova 500 in a traditional sense. Instead, the brand will be sending out the 500e in limited-quantity "drops," similar to rare Nike shoe releases. The (Red) Edition will be first, with Fiat promising "different variants of the 500e to keep the vehicle fresh and interesting."

When it does drop early next year, the 2024 Fiat 500e Red Edition will be amongst the most affordable EVs, at $34,095 including destination in America. In Canada—or more specifically the provinces of Quebec and British Columbia, at least initially— it will retail for $42,090 CAD including destination but before any iZEV rebates.

Become an AutoGuide insider. Get the latest from the automotive world first by subscribing to our newsletter here.