Can an EV replicate the hot-hatch thrills of the original ICE (internal combustion engine) version on which it’s based?
We drive the 2025 Abarth 500e Turismo to see if it’s as much fun as it’s hyped up to be – and to see if it can serve as a family car.
How much does the 2025 Abarth 500e cost?
The 2025 Abarth 500e Turismo has a manufacturer suggested retail price of $58,900 (correct at time of writing and excluding on-road costs).
Our test vehicle has Poison Blue premium paint ($990), pushing its price to $59,890 (excluding on-road costs).
What features do you get in the 2025 Abarth 500e?
Standard features onboard the 2025 Abarth 500e include a 10.25-inch touchscreen multimedia system (with wireless Apple Carplay and Android Auto), a 7.0-inch instrument cluster display, six-speaker JBL sound system, Alcantara seats, wireless charging pad, as well as 360° parking sensors, rear view camera, and 18-inch alloy wheels.
It also has six air bags, AEB, lane keep assist, blind spot assist, front, side and rear parking sensors, rear back-up camera, and tyre pressure monitoring system.
The exterior is striking, especially our test vehicle with the Poison Blue paint job. This is a low-key cool compact – and a panoramic fixed glass roof adds to its classy presence.
The interior – including a leather + Alcantara “Sporty” three-spoke steering wheel, Alcantara wrapped dashboard and Alcantara “Sporty” seats – looks on the right side of premium.
This is a small car but it manages to feel spacious inside for the size, the seats are firm but comfortable and overall the cabin has a low-key stylish feel about it.
In terms of practicality, there’s a plethora of storage spaces, although they’re small, and there are three USB ports (two USB-A and one USB-C) plus a wireless charging pad.
Boot space is listed as 185 litres, so beyond throwing a few shopping bags in the back, there’s not a lot of space on offer.
A three-year/150,000km warranty and with three years of roadside assistance apply to the 2025 Abarth 500e Turismo.
This vehicle has a eight-year/160,000km battery warranty.
What is the 2025 Abarth 500e like to drive?
The 2025 Abarth 500e Turismo is 3673mm long (with a 2322mm wheelbase), 1682mm wide and 1518mm high. It has a listed tare weight of 1335kg.
By its very nature, this is a highly manoeuvrable vehicle around town; a 9.4m turning circle means you can turn it on a five cent piece – well, not quite, but pretty close.
The steering is sporty and precise – fitting for something so zippy – and the 500e is able to switch direction smoothly and at pace.
Speaking of zippy, this EV can get from 0 to 100km/h in a claimed seven seconds – 235Nm of instant torque is very handy if you have to punch safely into traffic from a standstill or even if you have to overtake on the highway.
The electrical system and single-speed reduction gear work well, delivering drive to the road through the front-wheel drive set-up.
Ride and handling is mostly well sorted, although this is a small car and you tend to feel every lump and bump in the road – even minor irregularities – through the tyres and suspension.
The 500e, as is its sporty nature, sits very low on the ground – it has very little ground clearance – and that means for those of us who reside in the Illawarra, where driveways can often have steep entry and exit points, and sporting ground carparks are potholed and perilous, this hatch has to be driven with more care and consideration than a lot of other cars that sit higher off the ground.
As for energy consumption, on a full charge, we used 33 percent on the drive from Sydney’s Marrickville to just south of Wollongong, a distance of 81km.
After a few days of mixed driving – suburban streets and the highway – we charged at one of the NRMA DC units in Wollongong’s Stewart Street East car park and managed to get from 9 percent to 85 percent in 30 minutes on a maximum 75kW charger. (The dash-indicated estimated time to charge from 9 percent to 80 percent was 33 minutes.)
The Abarth 500e’s WLTP* range is 253km with an official combined energy consumption of 18.1kWh/100km. Our usage came out at 14.2kW after a week of testing. It has a charge cable (in a bag in the boot) and it can be charged at home or at a public charging location. (* World harmonised Light vehicle Testing Procedure: A strict globally accepted laboratory-based testing method of EV efficiency and driving range.)
There are three driving modes: Scorpion Street, Scorpion Track and Turismo. When you activate Turismo or Scorpion Street, you use one pedal only (the accelerator) as the car recoups kinetic energy every time you take your foot off the accelerator, and the 500e recharges the battery when you do – the driver does not need to brake.
The 500e also has a sound generator, which is essentially a novelty augmented exhaust note to make the driving enthusiast feel like they’re in an ICE Abarth.
Worth noting is the fact that the Abarth 500e does not have a spare tyre onboard, it has a tyre-repair kit.
Is the 2024 Abarth 500e any good?
While it’s a bit too squeezy inside to serve as a legit family car for anything more than a couple, the Abarth 500e Turismo is a lot of fun to drive, it looks and feels like a premium car and at the moment it’s the closest thing you’ll get to a hot hatch in EV form.
