A few days ago, Fiat announced the first new update to a non-battery-electric Fiat 500 in, let’s see…the last refresh to a gasoline-powered Fiat 500 was in 2016 (that was just a facelift), so it’s been nine years if I’m being generous. This new updated version of the fun little city car is actually based on the 500e battery-electric car from 2020, making it one of the very few combustion-engined cars ever to have started out as a battery-EV platform, which is interesting (this was a result of a decrease in EV demand). But what everyone seems to be fixated on is the new Fiat’s speed, or lack of it. Just so you know, everyone is wrong.
Before I get into that, let’s dig into what this new 500 is: it’s a hybrid, with a 12-volt lithium-ion battery and a one-liter three-cylinder engine, which together make a modest but respectable – to me, at least – 65 horsepower (and 68 pound-feet of torque). It also has a six-speed manual transmission that sends that trim congregation of horses to the front wheels.
The electric motor is pretty modest here — a starter-motor making about 4.8 hp — but it does have regen capability. The car is expected to sell for € 19,400 to start, which is about $22,300 in American freedombucks, making this car pretty dirt cheap.
More importantly, it’s a manual hybrid car! How many of those are still around? I love it! Fiat was also nice enough to give some specs in their press release, covering some basic performance and fuel economy:
A top speed of 96 mph, 0-62 mph acceleration of 16.2 secs (17.3 secs for Convertible) and combined WLTP fuel consumption of 53 mpg (52 mpg for Convertible) make Fiat 500 Hybrid the perfect choice for efficient, urban motoring.
53 mpg seems pretty good, but what everyone seems to be fixated on are 0-100 kph (o-62 mph) times: 16.2 seconds and 17.3 for the convertible. Here in the Land of Free Refills, we generally use 0-60 times, so I’m gonna roughly guess this new hybrid 500 will be able to get to 60 in 16 seconds flat.
Most of the reporting about the new car seems to reference these acceleration numbers which are, by modern standards, perhaps a little, um, relaxed. Motor1 says the “The New Fiat 500 With a Gas Engine Is Never In a Hurry” and AutoEvolution calls it “painfully slow” and CarExpert is a little more reserved, saying “performance traded for affordability” while AutoBlog is unashamedly snarky, saying it “makes the Nissan Kicks look like a rocket.”
You know what? All of these chumps need to grow up. Going from 0 to 60 in 16 seconds is fine. Look at these babies:
Yeah this is kinda my point about the manual 500. 17.3 seconds might be fine in a small Italian town, but it’s almost dangerous in a situation where the speed limit is above 35. https://t.co/TbY01KqLiB
— Motor1 (@Motor1com) November 23, 2025
Ugh, I’m so sick of this narrative. “Almost dangerous?” Really? You know what “almost dangerous is?” Not dangerous. Sure, the new 500 isn’t fast – but it is nearly two seconds or so faster than a ’74 AMC Gremlin (17.7 seconds) and faster than a ’62 Triumph Vitesse 1600, and that name means “speed!” More importantly, just fine.
I say this as someone who has been driving cars with about 50 hp for decades and so far has never ended up dead as a result. I’ve been in more than my share of wrecks, but none have been because any of my slow cars were too slow. Sure, a car that goes to 60 in 5 seconds or so is fun, but that’s just not how people drive! Most people are not burying the pedal into the carpet every time they go on an on-ramp. They just aren’t.
Getting to 60 in 16 seconds is plenty for, like, 98% of the traffic situations you’ll encounter. I’m not saying there aren’t exceptions where more speed is genuinely helpful, but you know what? You’d be fine with a 16-second-to-60 car. Again, I say this as someone who has done it. Over and over again. I daily-drove an old Beetle in LA, and it was fine, and now I daily-drive a Nissan Pao, which does 0-60 in the same 16-ish seconds as the new Fiat 500. It’s not a big deal.
Seroiusly, how quickly do you think the tens of thousands of semi trucks get to 60 mph? It’s nowhere near as quick as 16 seconds.
Besides, all the people whining about the new 500 being too slow, where the hell do you need to get to in such a rush? The Candyass Convention? Are you the Keynote Crier? Is that why you need to rush? You don’t want to be late to whine like a little baby in front of the adoring crowd? You better hurry! I hope you can get to a full mwile-a-mwinute in 5 seconds, little fellas!
I’m sorry. That’s not fair. I’m being mean. I think I’m just sick of this whole narrative that somehow you need a car that goes to 60 in former-no-joke-sportscar times just to be “safe.” It’s silly. 16 seconds to 60 will work; nobody is going to pool-cue you into orbit as you merge onto the highway if you have even a modicum of sense about how you drive.
I mean, maybe someone will, but that can happen no matter what you drive.
Point is, everyone complaining about how slow this is just needs to calm down. It’s fine. It’s a little hybrid manual city car that sells for $22 grand. The hell do you expect?
In my weekly jaunts up and down I-75 there are very few drivers that get anywhere near the speed limit by the end of the ramp. Many take several miles to even get around to matching the traffic, and many of those then run speeds greater than traffic. It makes zero sense, much like the carping about “slow” cars being available while you are not ever going to own one due to what you think it indicates about you.
You know what isn’t fine?
The electric door handles…
Although I think everyone and their mother having a 0-60 in the 3-5 second range is a bit excessive, 16 seems fine for off cities and rural roads but doesn’t inspire confidence on highways outside of onramps resembling airport runways imo. But more manual hybrids are always welcome, even though appreciation may arrive in 3-5 business days 🙂
For me, this car would be fine 80% of the time. Trundling around the city and parking in tight spaces are where cars like this excel. However, having spent my early days in a Geo Metro with 55hp, that other 20% of my time makes this car unacceptable. It’s not just getting to 60 that matters, it’s climbing hills and maintaining highway speeds in excess of 75 mph. Yeah, they say the top speed is around 90, but my guess is that takes a tailwind and going downhill.
The way I see it, having the ability to accelerate quickly (or at least 0-60 under 8 or 9 seconds) makes you less reliant on the drivers around you since you don’t have to rely on their brakes (or awareness) for your safety.
The left turn from my neighborhood goes on to a 35 mph road, but the issue is most people are going 45 or more. The main road also has a slight curve, so when I look to the right for cars approaching it’s possible for me to not even see a car that will immediately be on my bumper when pulling out. I regularly have to launch the hell out of my Mazda 3 just to make sure those people aren’t slamming on their brakes.
I would be much less comfortable taking that turn in a much slower car, to the point I would likely just find a different route. Granted, this is 100% a poor infrastructure and poor drivers issue, but it’s the world I’m driving in.
It’s possible to safely (or at least legally) drive a slow car, but it’s definitely more stressful.
Not driving in a way that aligns with other people’s expectations can be dangerous, regardless of whether those expectations are “proper” or not.
I had to limp a car with a cracked sidewall in the front passenger tire for about 20 miles yesterday, 10 of those going 50 mph when nearly everyone around me was doing 65+. It was quite scary.
Some possible marketing sound bites . . .
Zero to Sixty? DEFINITELY!
Zero to Sixty Time? Define TIME.
Zero to Sixty? Faster than you can fall in love.
No, it isn’t fine.
16 seconds 0 to 60 is a serious danger to any fragile ego.
I mean, what if you get into some trafic aggression and you want to show your emotions by doing a smokey little burout? Not going to happen.
Get the cheapest, hardest tires you can find and it should still give you at least a nice chirp if you rev it up before releasing the clutch.
I’m sorry, I generally love and support small/slow cars, but this is approaching dangerously slow. And that’s fine if you’re driving a 2CV or whatever, but this is a modern car that costs modern money. I agree that there’s nothing wrong with not getting anywhere in a hurry, but it’s an entirely different story when you’re out on actual 45mph+ roads with insane people in SUVs who are 25 minutes late to Kinsleeigh’s dance practice and simply have to get to the red light as fast as humanly possible or else they’ll explode.
Wait, are we actually going to get this? Pretty neat if we do.
Jason is right, this thing is fast enough for what it’s intended to do, which is be a city car. Or be a car for a weirdo not unlike myself.
I get that many of us live in the vast expanse of the US where space is unlimited and everyone drives their house of a vehicle from place to place. But I swear there are places where cars like this, or regular subcompacts, make sense. It’s not just major cities. But also mid-sized cities across the Northeast where “downtown” living has become very popular, and space for cars is increasingly limited. Now that basically every truly small car has been cancelled for this market, this and the ever bloating Mini are all that’s left.
Nobody is expecting this thing to sell like a RAV4. And that’s fine.
This article from May says there are no plans to bring it to the US. That blows. As someone who regularly rides a 125cc motorcycle and was considering a kei car as a 3rd vehicle, this looks like a far more practical small car.
Hopefully they make it fun. The 500e is apparently kind of a bore to drive, even ignoring its low range and lack of power. The joy of small, light vehicles is that they are usually pretty engaging when you start turning the steering wheel.
Yeah unfortunately being in the sort of space limited place where these are appealing, charging at home is rarely an option. A hybrid version of this car would likely sell better than the EV.
As someone who drove mk1 rabbits, ford escort wagon automatics and 3cly Subaru justys in the 1980-90s. as long as you can hit the end of the on ramp at legal speed It is fine.
You know, 5+ years ago I may have agreed with you Jason. I used to drive my 50hp Beetle all around the city, highways during rush hour, everything. 0-60 is ~18 seconds on that car. But after the pandemic it feels like traffic on highways is moving faster than before and people are somehow more impatient. It was really bad till 2022 or so, I was frequently getting tailgated and flipped the bird even on local roads where I was exceeding the speed limit already.
Now, I’ll hit the highway in the Beetle on a weekend when there’s little traffic, if I need to go somewhere farther away. But no more rush hour. Between slow acceleration and drum brakes it isn’t worth it when I’ve got a modern daily driver.
I’m not one of those people who thinks eight or nine seconds to 60 is glacial, like I’ve seen some people express. But 16 seconds really is pushing it, especially if you do a lot of highway driving.
Had a 71 Super Beetle, and yeah at some point it gets tiring being a road hazard. Being the slowest thing on the road and pretty much below the sight line of 60% of things on the road is just high stress driving.
I don’t disagree that driving something slow is a dealbreaker. Most of the time, there are other cars around and my observation is that the vast majority of people drive pretty slowly. You could probably do just fine with something this slow in most cases.
What I will argue against is the value on this. Sure, it gets excellent fuel economy, but when you compare the price of anything used, it seems like a difficult pick.
As I have a problem with old Volvos, that’s my standard unit of currency. So I could get two P3 XC70s for the cost of one of these, Three P2 V70s (with the T5 engine) or probably four 240DLs in various states of disrepair.
If I were being progressive, I could probably get an almost not broken S60 for 22k.
The value is not really there. If I were a normal person, I could get a nice used v6 mustang for this money and it would probably be far more entertaining to drive and at least as reliable.
This is a car for people in Europe or Japan who live where they’re never hitting 60. They’re driving in the city and want a cheap car to squeeze into tiny parking spaces, or else live up in the hills and their longest drive is 50km to the train station.
It’s a niche but not a crazy niche.
I don’t see how this car can compete for those buyers against all the new similarly priced Chinese electric cars.
That’s almost as slow as browsing this website, sheesh.
shots fired
They needed to be, this site feels like you’re getting to it on dialup.
fine, jeez, I’ll replace the server’s 28.8 mbps modem with a 56K one. Happy now?
tbf this is the slowest loading website i regularly visit lol
I figured you used Citroen DS-L for a server connection.
Don’t tease us like that, we know that the Commodore you’re running this thing from can’t support that sort of speed without self-immolating.
Nice try.
I will say I don’t personally care because I’m a member and will wait to read the articles, but almost all of my reading is done on gigabit+ connections and it often takes 3-4 seconds to load every page. I meant to send Hardigree an email about this but I do wonder if the traffic problems from Google are related to page load times. I know at least in the past anything more than a second or two got you downranked.
You could put a up a throttle for ‘special’ addresses and crank em down to 300 baud.
Dump a bottle of seafoam on that bad boy. Let us know when you’re ready for the Italian Tune Up and we’ll hit the page hard. You just gotta clear those pipes out every once in a while.
53 mpg from a tiny, glacial, 65 hp car makes a lot less sense now that you can get the same economy in a Camry with 3x the space, 3x the power, and 3x the reliability that still starts under $30,000.
You really gotta be space constrained or budget constrained to settle for this.
Not to mention the real-world fuel economy if you’re doing anything other than low speed city driving is probably worse than advertised. At least it’s a manual so you can redline it on highway on-ramps.
This. It’s the Smart Car all over.
Or you like weird cars.
Liking weird cars and buying them new are almost two separate circles of the Venn diagram.
I had this same thought process. I routinely get 53+mpg in my Kia Niro, which is fully useable hatchback with a starting price of $27k. The Camry is an even more compelling option. As always, the 500 is a tough sell outside of dense urban areas, especially in the USA.
You can get a used Niro or Fit for well under 20k that’s not all that much bigger.
My new-to-me car will leap to 60mph in under six seconds. As a kid growing up in the 80s we considered anything under 8 seconds modestly quick and the “genuinely quick” category started somewhere around 6.5 seconds. Quicker than that and you’re into serious performance.
Back in the day – and I freely confess that the day included the depths of The Malaise Era where I’m concerned – 16 seconds to 60 was slow but not intolerable. The 20-plus seconds required for a cruelly flogged Yugo, that was intolerable. The 20-plus seconds required by a diesel Rabbit, that was intolerable – but you tolerated it anyway because the fuel economy was epic.
So far I have never matted the loud pedal on the car and held it there until the speedo cracked 60. Never. It doesn’t come up. That kind of performance isn’t necessary in day-to-day driving, and everyone telling you that you need that kind of power to keep up with traffic, they’re lying. I can and have gotten through traffic with the performance offered by a 1987 Hyundai Excel – one of the more ironically named cars out there – which slowed noticeably whenever the AC engaged. 0-60 in 16 seconds? Hmm, closer to 13…unless the AC is on. And it handled traffic just fine.
Depends on where you live and drive. I am out in the country, and to get to most anything is freeway or at least 50+ MPH roads. And we don’t have freeway ramps – you stop at a stop sign, then make a right turn and you’re on the freeway. If you car is doing 0-16 in 16 seconds, you are going to be waiting a nightly long time for a gap you can fit into, and piling up cars behind you (I’ve seen faster cars than that pile up the road for nearly a mile waiting to get in during busy times).
And don’t get me started on the traffic light a few miles down the road. Yep, a traffic light (highway drops to 55 from 70 just before the light) and then jumps to 70 again after the light (I mean *right after*). (This is another entrance/exit area.) Please don’t drive a tinker-oy wind-up car like the 500 on roads like this.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t a use case for this (city driving) but saying “it’s fine” for day-to-day driving really depends on where that driving is.
I’m sticking with “It’s fine.”
I’ll compare this to my ’86 300SDL. Which is shoving all of 4000lbs with 140hp (I’m sure some has leaked out in 300k miles).
Factory, it did 12.5 0-60, and mine is somewhere in the 13s.
Getting up to highway speed is THE MOST STRESSFUL part of driving this car.
The biggest problem today is that every fucknuckle that tripped over a license on the ground is ahead of you on the on-ramp.
The local pass time in my city is trundling up the on-ramp at 60-80km/h, merging in to traffic, THEN flooring it to highway speed.
Meanwhile, I didn’t get the runway to build momentum and my ass is hanging out in the wind while I try to merge.
Around town is fine, and the car will eat highway at whatever speed you climb it to. But the on ramps have aged me.
“Back in my day…” yeah, the same argument gets made by people on all seasons vs snow tires.
Back in the day, no one had snow tires, so you all slid to a stop relatively evenly. Nowadays, the majority have snow tires and they stop faster. So you’re more likely to rear end them with your hubris on all seasons.
It’s the same with acceleration. I think the 10 second mark is about the plateau of 0-60 if you plan to regularly highway commute in urban areas.
Huh, wonder if something is actually awry with your 300SDL?
I DD a ’83 300TD with some 400k miles on the original engine and the original transmission and I’ve never ever had any problems with merging onto the highway. And since I need to rebuild the turbocharger I’ve been taking it easy until I do so. And until its recent demise at the hands of a red light runner and a total-happy insurance company I used to DD a NA Mk2 Jetta diesel where I also never had any problems with highway merging; likewise with my 1969 VW bus (not diesel but the aerodynamics of a brick aren’t great for its 47 HP, lol) which I also DD’d for years until I sidelined it for some pushrod tube seal leaks which I still have to rectify. Once I do so I’ll happily DD the bus.
I can get up to highway speed to merge, but I need the whole on ramp to do it. Which is difficult when I’m barreling down the on-ramp at 90km/h and Darryl DumbFuck is still doing 60km/h at the merge point.
I also have the taller rear gear from a 560SEL in mine. Which scrubs some acceleration.
Man you’re not wrong about on ramps – it’s the same here in the US. Especially with the proliferation of electric assist people are used to very quick acceleration to 60 even in 3 row SUVs and don’t bother building speed until the very end of the ramp.
Which drives me MENTAL. Driving instruction is part of my job (I have signing authority for C class licenses, for coach/transit buses).
I make it abundantly clear that, barring traffic ahead of them, if they’re not at highway speed BEFORE merging, they’re going to fail.
I refuse to contribute to shitty driving practices.
You left out the first class drivers who come to a full stop on the merge ramp. I just love those deranged souls.
I’ve never experienced this in any city I’ve driven except Ottawa.
Which, unfortunately, is where I’m located.
Preston street ramp going East is one of the worst. Used to live near the Hospital and took that ramp daily. Happened at least once a week.
Oh god, those people are scary. I was riding with my MIL one time and she did this. As we cruised down the ramp at a leisurely pace, she seemed oblivious to the need to merge. She got the the bottom of the ramp, screeched to a halt and then looked to see what traffic was doing. I generally insist that I drive when we’re going somewhere together now.
Both my parents were the same. Made me crazier than usual.
Mine does this too. What is it with mothers in law?
“You left out the first class drivers who come to a full stop on the merge ramp. I just love those deranged souls.”
Oh I lay on the horn and high beams for jackasses like that.
Doesn’t seem to deter them. Blissfully clueless and situationally unaware. Whuts that noise, whut are those flashes.
I had a 300SD for a while. The only time I was really nervous was merging onto a highway from a stop sign (Meritt parkway for those in the northeast) with 5 people and luggage. Otherwise fine – -I also had a diesel Delica for a few years that was even slower to 60, also mostly fine sicne it was nicely geared for acceleration…alternately was screaming at highway speeds.
At least with turbodiesels you have a lot of torque, which makes them very confident to drive.
“The local pass time in my city is trundling up the on-ramp at 60-80km/h, merging in to traffic, THEN flooring it to highway speed.”
When I drove my dad’s old Mercury Grand Marquis (133hp shoving 4000lbs… so a similar 0-60 time), my strategy for dealing with idiots who do that is to pull back ahead of time and then gun it using the extra space between me and the idiot in front to build up speed.
The REAL challenge was doing that while towing our 3000lb camping trailer… soo… 133hp for around 7500lbs total… which probably knocked the 0-60 time down to the 30 second range… similar to a early VW type 1 Beetle.
Problem is, doing that I have overly aggressive people behind me.
They’re also driving THAT much slower that I still eat the distance between.
But yeah, that was my passing strategy in my mom’s ’99 Pathfinder. Drop back, build speed, then time my passes.
Would it be correct to assume this version won’t be sold in the land of the Canyonero?
Slow cars are fun if they have the proper engagment and suspension tune, you will feel you are pushing it hard but the car is moving at legal speeds while getting good MPG, example Honda Insight Gen 1.
Could this be considered one of the slowest passenger cars for sale?
I’ve had a on-going series of under-powered 4 cyl manual transmission daily drivers going back to my 71 Vega. It’s fine. You learn to flog them, as needed. But I believe most accidents are avoided by the brake pedal, not the gas pedal.
That reminds me of that time I used to daily drive a Suzuki Wagon R+ with whopping 60hp coming from 1.0 liter engine.
Also going 0-60 in 16 seconds, which was more than enough for city driving and shorter routes outside town. Granted, you had to be more patient and plan every overtake ahead but it didn’t stop me from going 70-80 mph on some expressways.
My oldest daughters’ ’24 Mirage gets to 60mph in about 11 seconds and keyboard warriors make fu of the Mirage like its the red-headed stepchild that is no longer produced. The problem with American roads is that every damn vehicle now needs 300+ horsepower just to keep up with the “other guy” and their 300+ horsepower.
Vehicles have laughably become too large and unwieldly and most owners can’t even park the damn things.
I rock a Mirage. I do get a bit squirrely on one freeway on-ramp, where I’m entering into the left lane of the freeway where people regularly are going 80. Otherwise, it’s perfectly fine.
I don’t know, 65hp was probably fun when the old OLD Fiat 500 weighed about a thousand pounds and was like a tin can. Add all of today’s soundproofing, reinforcements, electronics, … I don’t know.
This is from someone that loved his 2013 Fiat 500 Abarth for 7 years.
Just means you get to wring it up to redline every time you get to an on ramp and not get into trouble. As someone who dailied an ’88 Nova through college, slow car fast be fun.
Providing you’re not behind all the people I seem to get behind that are doing 30 MPH all the way down the ramp and don’t speed up until they reach the freeway.
Italian tune-ups all day, every day.
Fiat built a changli?