Abarth 500e is the electric hot hatch you’ve been waiting for

If you're a fan of the electric Fiat 500e but fancy something a bit sportier, then Abarth has the answer. Just as it does with the regular 500, the Abarth tuning house has added extra power, stiffened the suspension, fitted bigger wheels, and slapped on some very bright paint.

The result is the Abarth 500e, and that paint is part of a pack called the Scorpionissima, which is limited to 1949 examples and includes a whole range of optional extras, like 18in diamond-cut wheels.

Both the regular and Scorpionissima versions of Abarth 500e use the same 42kWh battery pack as the top-spec Fiat 500e, only here power has been increased to 114 kW (152hp), while torque comes in at 235 Nm (173 lb ft). This gives the electric hot hatch a 0-62 mph time of 7.0 seconds, which is actually down slightly on the petrol-powered Abarth’s 6.7 seconds.

Once on the move, Abarth says the battery-powered car is the quicker of the two, sprinting from 12 to 25 mph in one second, and from 25 to 35 mph in 1.5 seconds, which is a second quicker than its internally-combusted sibling.

The Abarth 500e comes with a new augmented sound system that mimics an engine, although this can be turned off when you’re done pretending. Whereas the Fiat 500e sounds like a string quartet as it drives by, the Abarth plays a guitar sound when it is switched on and when it first exceeds 12 mph on each journey.

The interior is almost identical to the regular Fiat, with a 7.0-in driver display and a 10.25-in touchscreen with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, while the top trim level includes Alcantara seats and an uprated JBL sound system.

There are three drive modes on offer, called Turismo, Scorpion Street and Scorpion Track (Abarth likes to lean into the arachnid on its badge), and the car supports fast-charging of up to 85 kW. Abarth says the 500e’s battery takes around 15 hours to fill on a 3 kW home charger, four hours with an 11 kW charger, and about 35 minutes on a DC 85 kW fast charger.

The Abarth 500e will begin shipping to customers in June 2023, and although prices haven’t yet been revealed we expect it to cost a bit more than the £34,000 Fiat 500e Prima.