The Fiat 500 has gone electric and in typical fashion, tuning house Abarth will put their expertise to use on the model. A potential Fiat Abarth 500e prototype has been spied in Italy wearing sheep’s clothing.
It is fairly easy to distinguish an Abarth 500 apart from the standard model on which it is based, this may become a little bit more difficult as things become electrified and obscene amounts of exhaust pipes can no longer be used as a telltale sign. The latest spy shots show the bodywork identical to that of a standard 500e however a code displayed on the window alludes to the fact that this is indeed the Abarth 500e prototype.
Watch the reveal of the all new Fiat 500e here.
Walter Vayr’s spy images shown on Facebook display the code “332 BEV ABARTH M 001”. The numerical value of 332 is apparently code for the project and M 001 is expectedly the first prototype of the process. Other than being covered in a layer of dirt in a company parking lot, the model is also wearing familiar looking Alfa Romeo rims on low profile tyres previously used on the MiTo model which already give the little hatch a more menacing look than the refined examples available to the standard 500e.
The newest electrified Abarth is expected to be launched in 2023 while Abarth’s boss Olivier François has stated that the project has been “more complicated to deliver than I thought.”
The pumped up EV hot hatch is expected to employ uprated suspension and brakes from Abarth with an improvement on performance able to get the new model to 100 kmh in around 7 seconds and onto a top speed of 160 kmh. These are unofficial numbers which should be confirmed towards the end of the year or at the beginning of 2023.
