Amateur Fiat 500e Review Mistakes the EV for a Sporty "Abarth" Model

However, have it painted in pearlescent orange, put some black Abarth stripes on its side, a pair of Abarth bucket seats and that thick, manly steering wheel, and it can make a huge difference.

Bjørn Nyland certainly fell for it. Bjørn is a Tesla enthusiast who, for a while, held the record for the longest distance covered in a stock electric vehicles on one charge. He also makes videos about EVs and, as you'll be able to see from the train sequence in the video below, he's pretty passionate about electric stuff.

He's not that good at judging cars, though. When you've only driven a few in your lifetime, a switch from something like the Model X to a tiny vehicle such as the Fiat 500e can have serious repercussions on how you perceive things.

And that's precisely what happened to Bjørn. Plucked out of the comfort of the Tesla SUV and planted into the hard-riding Fiat, he was wrongly given the impression he was in a sports car with electric propulsion. In reality, unless there was something other than the stock Fiat 500e motor under the hood, the car only had 111 hp. And while the 500 is a fairly light car, 111 hp still isn't enough to qualify it as sporty.

Bjørn shows his lack of experience once again by failing to find a better comparison for the 500e than the Kia Soul. The Korean EV is in a totally different class than the Italian. The closest competitor would have been the recently introduced smart forfour electric drive, which has similar dimensions and performance figures.

His conclusion is that the Fiat 500e is very good for city driving, but unless the urban area where you live has winding roads and a very lenient police force, then the added "Abarth" part is completely wasted due to the very short range provided by the battery pack that will indeed confine you to the boundaries of the city.

Watch the full review here: