00:00I don't have to drive a lot, but I still need a car for getting around town to pick up groceries
00:04and my kid from school. That's why something like the Fiat 500e caught my attention.
00:09This is one of the smallest and cheapest EVs around.
00:17I've been driving this car for a week. I've taken it into New York City from
00:21suburbs of New Jersey and back, and I've only needed to recharge it once.
00:25Right now, I've got about 95 miles, and that's more than enough if all you're doing is going
00:30to the grocery store and back a couple times a week. It's motor here. It's a 118 horsepower,
00:36producing about 162 foot-pounds of torque. Not the biggest motor by any stretch of the
00:41imagination, but because this car is so small, it's actually very peppy on the highway.
00:47I'm driving over cobblestones right now, which isn't the smoothest in the world,
00:51but the Fiat handles them pretty well. It has smaller tires than a typical car, about 17 inches,
00:57so you do feel potholes a little bit more, but otherwise, it's a fairly smooth ride.
01:04One thing I like about the Fiat 500e is that there's manual controls for things.
01:09All of the environmental controls are laid out in a row right in front of me here,
01:13so you can sort of reach things by feel and not have to worry about, you know,
01:16going to the touchscreen and finding stuff. You can, of course, do things on the touchscreen,
01:21but it's nice to have physical controls in the backup. One of the things I really like about the
01:26Fiat 500e is a little shelf that's right underneath the dashboard here, and you can slot your phone in
01:32there, and it'll automatically recharge your phone if you have wireless charging. It's a little feature,
01:37but it's a handy one. The 500e has a large but not overwhelming 10-inch touchscreen,
01:43which lets you control everything fairly easily. It has, you know, CarPlay if you have
01:48iPhone or Android Auto, and there's also media controls, you know, for a Sirius
01:55satellite radio. You can control the climate here, and there's also navigation.
02:02The drive controls for the 500e are also pretty straightforward. You just have four buttons here
02:07right in front of the dashboard for park, reverse, neutral, and drive. One of the other major
02:12considerations with the Fiat 500e is its range. This car is only rated for about 139 miles on a
02:19full charge. I was able to get it to maybe about 140-ish, 149, but it is something you consider,
02:27especially if you take a lot of longer trips. The 500e's charging port is in sort of a traditional
02:34spot where you'd usually find a place to refill a gas car. Pop it open, though, and you have
02:40the plugs to recharge the car here, and there's also a nice little status symbol on the side
02:45that lets you know just how full the car is. Like all Fiat 500s, this is a small car. I'm about six
02:52feet tall, and as you can see, I can easily get over the top of it. If you're sitting in the front
02:58seat of the Fiat 500e, you'll find plenty of leg room, but it's a different case if you're sitting
03:02in the back. I'm going to sneak it and slide in here and close it up. The front seat is moved
03:10almost all the way forward, and I still feel a little claustrophobic. It's pretty tight for me.
03:16Of course, one of the drawbacks to having such a small car is that there's limited storage space.
03:21Unlike some larger EVs, there's no frunk for the Fiat 500e. You've got room for maybe two carry-on
03:27suitcases, but not much more. Back seats do fold down, but if you're doing a large Costco run,
03:34you'll probably need a larger car. When it comes to customizing the 500e, you're fairly limited in
03:46your choices. Fiat offers the car in white, red, black, and sort of a mist gray, but there's not
03:52much more you can configure in terms of, like, motor, for example, or tires, or trim packages.
03:57As you can see, it has a nice, you know, 500 styling logo on the front here. Nice attractive
04:02headlights, too, that were plenty bright at night, and you can adjust them, obviously. It has a nice
04:08red, white, and green of the Italian flag here, because after all, this is an Italian car.
04:12The styling of the Fiat 500e is simple but elegant. I do like on the seats here, it has the Fiat logo
04:19stitched into it. There's a nice sort of fabric dashboard here. Nothing feels cheap, nothing feels
04:25overly ostentatious on it. So that's a look at the Fiat 500e. It is a fun, little, affordable EV. It starts
04:38at just $32,500, making it one of the least expensive EVs that you can afford. However, there are a few
04:44compromises at this price. For one thing, its small size, which is great for cities, also means you don't
04:50have a lot of storage space, and its range, about 139 miles, is small compared to most other EVs.
04:58But if all you need to do is drive around the city or around your town for groceries and things like
05:03that, then this could be a great, little, fun electric car for you. What do you think about the Fiat 500e?
05:09Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and be sure to follow us on Instagram,
05:13TikTok, and other social media sites. For Tom's Guide, this is Mike Cosgrove.
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