A couple of days ago, Fiat unveiled a host of micromobility solutions with uniquely Italian touches. As well as giving its electric Topolino LSV new colors and partnering with a coffee roaster that would presumably set up shop on Italian street corners using the Fiat TRIS three-wheeler, the company’s social media posts show the Topolino having arrived in the US.
As well as the Dolce Vita sort of laid-back “good life” touch Fiat is eager to apply onto anything it currently builds, the most interesting point in Fiat’s micromobility suite is the Multiplina concept, which brings back the Multipla name and thinking. It’s not quite the replacement for the millennial Multipla, known to be horrendously ugly incredibly cool but more of a throwback to the 1950s original, with its basis on the aforementioned Topolino.
If you haven’t heard of the Topolino, maybe its Citroën Ami sibling is more familiar sounding. It’s a plastic, two-door, two-seater light car that doesn’t necessarily require a driving license to operate on roads, and it’s only available as an EV.
Traditionally, Europeans have gotten around in varyingly terrible plastic boxes in those use cases when they have been the most viable option for unlicensed drivers young and old. The Moroccan-built Topolino and Ami and their Opel-badged Rocks-e sibling come from established car manufacturers, and even if they have a certain amount of built-in flimsiness, they are perhaps closer to cars than some other offerings. Especially as they aren’t propelled by shaky, rattly diesels but smooth electric power, all six kilowatts of it. The battery is 5.5 kWh in size.
Because they are about as wide as they are long, with the front end looking the same as the back, the Topolino and especially the Ami look like garden sheds with wheels.
Despite being optimized for European streets, the Topolino started its journey across the Atlantic, towards American consumers. Late last year, Fiat’s CEO, Olivier Francois (above), stated that there have been plans to bring the Topolino to the United States:
“The Fiat Topolino, our small, joyful, colorful car that is now everywhere in Europe, has made several appearances in the U.S. over the past year, including last month at the LA Auto Show, where it’s creating tremendous excitement among consumers. So much so that I’m happy to share that we’ll be bringing the Fiat Topolino to the U.S., with more details to come next year.”
In Fiat’s Instagram post shared a day ago, blurry Topolinos are rolling off the boat. No prices have yet been mentioned, or when the tiny cars will actually be available to be bought, but they’re there.
View this post on Instagram
In addition to the Topolino material, Fiat released a single image of the Multiplina concept car, which shows a longer-wheelbase monobox vehicle with narrow tires in the corners and a look that’s again derived from the classic 500.
Fiat has been eager to put the same face on various cars, yet it works well here, especially with the warm mango yellow hue of the two-tone bodywork. The top part is cream white, with a roll-up top to let the Italian sun inside.
The Multiplina, which uses a diminutive form of the word Multipla for a name, is in Fiat’s view yet another step towards a real car from the quadricycle standpoint. Cutting through the blurb, which features phrasing such as “maximizing space-efficiency through an intelligent, human-centric architecture,” the message is about fitting more people inside the same basic structure as with the smaller Topolino.
Let’s Post Some Photos Of The Fiat Multipla
The Fiat Multipla has never been known for being especially beautiful. The 1998-introduced six-seater MPV prioritized interior space over everything else, which gave it very bizarre looks. The design appeared to be modular, with the passenger compartment its own bulging space, with straight sides and a separate front. A while ago, Adrian analyzed the 1998 Multipla’s polarizing design in this great article.
In recent years, the Multipla has become a meme and a phenomenon due to its polarizing looks, which Fiat even ruined back in the day with a smoothing facelift. The Multipla name came from the Fiat 600’s egg-shaped multi-purpose version, which was a sort of proto-minivan.
The Fiat 600 Multipla
The absolutely original Fiat Multipla took its platform and basics from the 1955 Fiat 600, but added seats for up to six people. Since the engine was in the back, there was enough space to move the front bench atop the front wheels. The front seat was accessed via rear-hinged “suicide” doors, with large side doors providing access to the passenger seat rows. In other words, maximizing space-efficiency through an intelligent, human-centric architecture.
The layout and packaging are quite daring, especially as the front passenger also had the spare wheel next to their knees. Consider also that the engines were still the same as in the original 600, meaning a power output of 21hp at first and a 1960 power boost to 25 horsepower, and we’re talking about a plate that’s pretty full. At least if you hit something with it, you wouldn’t have had that much speed when you arrived to the accident.
The design is also very odd, as it has a more vertical front end and a sloping 600-shaped rear. As a result, it looks like a reversing egg.
Fiat built the 600 Multipla for a little over ten years, and it was replaced by the Fiat 850 Familiare in the late ‘60s. The Familiare kind of looks like a shrunken Corvair Greenbriar, and also had the same layout.
The replacement for the 1990s-2000s Fiat Multipla also dropped the Multipla name, as it was again a 500-based and 500-faced blob called the 500L. Again built for ten years, it never achieved the cult status that the Multipla did, and the seating arrangement was more normal, with no three-wide front seat. You could get it as a seven-seater version with a longer rear section. Currently, Fiat makes the 600 again, which is styled after the – you guessed it – the classic Fiat 500 and 600 of the 1950s, but it’s on the same platform as the Jeep Avenger and the Peugeot 2008. The recent introduction of the Fiat (Grande) Panda is a welcome break from putting the same front-end design on all the cars.
If it makes sense for Fiat to bring the plastic Topolino to America, it would make sense for it to introduce the Multiplina later on, as it will be bigger and feature more interior space. Let’s hope all the Multipla memes in the world convince the manufacturer to do it.
All images and top graphic: Fiat
When I was in Italy last month, I saw lots of these – they’re awesome. but the use case will be limited in US. I can’t wait to see some here.
I feel like this will only serve to further entrench a certain demographic of people into further lifting their Ram HEMIs, stance them further out, and even lower-profile deeper-dish mud tires.
The AAMVA is not going to be happy about this…. Good.
AAMVA is partially why all 50 states are collecting and databasing facial-recognition compatible photos of everyone who gets a drivers’ license or even an ID card in the USA. Even in states where the voters had the practice outlawed, it still goes on anyway and the crooked court system won’t even address it. This information is shared with fusion centers, databrokers, and intelligence agencies, not just law enforcement, when the 4th amendment implies it shouldn’t be collected or shared in the first place. Almost no one even got a vote on this crap, and those who did said they didn’t want it, and got it anyway. Then the courts pretend everyone “voluntarily” provided the information, when if you don’t provide it, you’re locked out of getting a DL or ID.
This information is then weaponized against those who were forced to provide it, by it being used to identify them without their consent at protests or as they go about their lives. Some people have been wrongfully arrested because the algorithm mis-identified them as a criminal and their lives have been destroyed as a result.
Screw AAMVA.
This is just a neighborhood electric vehicle, we’ve had loads of them on the market for decades, AAMVA doesn’t go after GEM or EZ Go, they’re not going to care about this. NEVs are fancy golf carts with a few extra features to make them legal to drive on very low speed limit roads, you’re not likely to encounter many of them outside, say, The Villages or Old Town Key West
Antti, love the article, honest and greatly written.
Also any Multipla content is a win.
I thought they were trying to ban Kei cars in the United States.
Come on, Fiat!
It’s an NEV
If the orange menace finds out it’s “fresh off the boat”, he’ll assume it’s an immigrant, (which of course it is), and he’ll deport it…
These are vehicles, as long as they are imported legally it’s fine. If not they are crushed which has been going on for decades. The EPA, NHSTA and CBP do not mess around when it comes to imports.
I WANT Fiat to succeed in the US, but I don’t see how their lineup of *checks notes* one tiny car and then a soon to be announced even tinier car can pull that off in the US.
The 500E starts at $33K and is less practical than the Slate. I once bombed around Italy in a 500 and it was fun and practical, even on the long haul from Rome to Turin and back, but I’m sacrificing a lot, including being able to fit my family in it. So it’s a runabout, and at a price rivaling a Civic that’s just never going to work for me; as I can do all that and fit my family and some groceries in the Civic.
This little thing is adorable, but I don’t see it working outside of the coasts with high population density cities, or retirement communities where people want something nicer than a golf cart. That ignores the other 90% of the country, not sure how that really works out for them.
Adding this to my comment, the 500e has a starting price higher than the starting price of a Civic Si. Let that sink in.
The 500e was a big mistake and they hastily adapted the 1 litre MHEV and six speed manual from the Panda to try to make it slightly better.
Love it. I don’t care about Fiat’s bottom line or business motivation. Give me both of them and I’ll figure out how to use them.
Is this meant to be a replacement for a golf cart in those communities? I’m assuming it’s not highway legal.
That is one of the things that puzzles me. There are specific regulations for quadricycles in Europe, but how does that fit US regs?
Legality and definition varies from state to state. Here’s mine, which is a “bicycle”:
https://i.imgur.com/Jpc9dQq.jpg
Weighing in at about 90 lbs, it can do 82 mph on flat ground and 0-60 mph in under 9 seconds. I usually cruise around 30-35 mph while pedaling with the motors contributing the rest of the power needed. I plan to make it much faster.
The US has a category for Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs), sometimes called Low Speed Electric Vehicles (LSEVs), they are essentially golf carts that are required to have their speed governed to 25mph and are only legal to drive on roads with speed limits up to 35mph. They’re exempt from most of FMVSS, but still need basic stuff like seat belts, horn, and lighting
Its a market that’s existed for decades, pre-Stellantis/pre-FCA, Chrysler was one of the biggest players in it when they owned Global Electric Motorcars (GEM)
This thing looks cool and would probably be a decent neighborhood runabout, if you need that sort of thing. One would hope it has air conditioning, because most places in the US where it would be useful are pretty hot in the not winter. Other than that, I am struggling to see a strong business case for bringing this to the US.
Same I really am trying to understand the point of this? Top speed of less then 30mph I am sure real world range is probably 30miles. I guess retirement communities/lake house communities/golf communities and so on. But depending on the price you could get a nice golf cart or utility vehicle with A/C.
Well quick search shows these might start at 12k so actually not really a bad price for a community/city (if even allowed on city roads) put put around vehicle.
I was expecting it to be closer to $20K. At $12K it’s not as bad a value proposition as I expected.
Reminds me of a VW microbus, but I bet it doesn’t have enough room to take rips of the “time travel device” found in a lot of microbuses.