A few years ago, Fiat had a problem with one of its big image-makers. The electric Fiat 500e city car simply wasn’t selling well enough for the scale of its production line to make sense. Rather than allocate some space in the Mirafiori plant to another model, Fiat set about the arduous task of turning an electric car into a hybrid. The development window was small, but Fiat seems to be pulling it off, with pre-production examples of the 500 Hybrid already being built.
If that wasn’t interesting enough, among the staged low-resolution photos of a pre-production 500 Hybrid released by Fiat sits a partially camouflaged dashboard shot proudly displaying a shifter with a six-speed H-pattern on a cue ball knob. Yep, it’s a hybrid with a manual transmission, a sensible city car with gears you can row yourself.
Needless to say, hybrid cars with manual transmissions are rare. Outside of a handful of Hondas (including the original Insight and the CR-Z), there aren’t many around. However, this makes me wonder what Fiat means by “hybrid.” See, Honda’s stick-shift hybrids used the old Integrated Motor Assist system, which was a parallel hybrid system. This means that the engine couldn’t purely act as a generator while the motor alone drove the wheels, but rather, the motor provides regenerative braking and drives the car with the gasoline engine, reducing load on the engine and allowing for a smaller combustion engine than would be needed in a non-hybrid setup.
In contrast, the series-parallel hybrids we’re used to today can all drive the wheels on electric power alone, and some don’t even require a transmission at all, but the logistics of a series-parallel system with a manual transmission are complicated to say the least. Electric motors don’t require multi-speed transmissions, but shutting off and starting up a combustion engine with a clutch engaged while a vehicle’s in motion can be, well, dangerous without at least a freewheel mechanism on the flywheel. At the same time, manually shifting a gearbox with an electric motor engaged sounds like it could be a tricky proposition for rev-matching, and potentially an invitation to break stuff with enough output.
However, there’s a good chance Fiat’s using the hybrid moniker a bit generously. See, Stellantis already has a suitable powertrain, a one-liter three-cylinder engine with a 48-volt mild hybrid system, all mated to a manual gearbox. It was used in the old 500 and is used in the Fiat Panda, and it kicks out a modest 70 horsepower. Is that the powertrain in this new 500 Hybrid? Fiat won’t say one way or another yet, but it’s plausible that an already homologated powertrain could’ve shortened lead times, albeit while leading to its own challenges.
Regardless of what’s under the hood, just think about what goes into taking an electric car and turning it into a combustion-powered one. It requires carving out gallons of space for a fuel tank and exhaust system, ensuring a combustion powertrain fits under the hood without causing any issues in crash tests, changing spring and damping rates to deal with the change in weight, snaking a filler neck up into the quarter-panel, running fuel lines up and down the car, punching out enough of the frontal area for adequate cooling, packaging larger heat exchangers, the list just goes on. In this case, it also requires finding room in the dashboard for a shifter mechanism, designing a new pedal box with a clutch pedal that won’t cause issues in crash testing, running additional hydraulics through the firewall, and getting everything to play nice with the body electrical system.
It’s a bear of a task, and the fact that Fiat seems to be pulling it off is fascinating. Of course, there’s still some tweaking to be done and processes to nail down before production kicks off in the fourth quarter of this year, but pre-production models already rolling down the line at Mirafiori is a good start.
Top graphic credit: Fiat
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Given Stellantis’ resources, or lack, I’d all but guarantee that this is the same old mild-hybrid unit they already have.
I am interested.
I’ll wait for details.
Thankfully, there’s a mechanic named Tony just down the street from my job…
Died 2016
Born 2026
Welcome back CR-Z
This is a bit of wishful thinking, but I hope they take this hybrid tech and make an exciting, simple Abarth with it! Maybe a high-revving nat-asp, low displacement 4pot, since the motor can fill in torque?
Can we get the Panda version of this, please?
This feels a little like Fiat has been reading car enthusiast comments and is replying “Prove it.”
If they’d been doing that, they’d have skipped straight to “Abarth. What, son?”
Interesting little car could be fun. The etouq system on a small engine could be a good little hybrid setup
I just want to point out that it looks like the top shot blurred the pissed Fiat’s mouth while it told me to go f*ck myself.
It’s worth noting that the Fiat 500e shares some of its platform with their “multi-energy” platform that underpins a variety of small cars available as BEV, PHEV, and Mild-Hybrid
This is interesting. I’d love to test drive it if it comes to the States. Fourth quarter of this year did you say?
Also, what’s the deal with the graphic thing over the front of the white car in the top image? All those little circles/disks/whatever? Is that a temporary cover for some reason during assembly? The graphic reminds me of those old stores (maybe they were Woolworth stores) where above the storefront there’s sometimes a bas-relief facade element, usually in a celadon green sort of color, and (to the best of my recollection) often featuring gears in the design? I googled briefly, but couldn’t find an image to share.
Anyway, that’s what the circle-spattered rectangular thing on the nose of that white Fiat reminds me of.
I do find the car interesting though, and yes, the idea of what would be involved in converting an electric car into a gas hybrid seem daunting. Does this mean there’s no plain-gas powered 500 anymore in Europe?
Thanks Thomas! 😀
It looks like the car’s mouth was taped over to keep it from talking
The camouflage is likely because that’s the external part of the body they had to change to add vents for a radiator. There is indeed no petrol 500 in Europe any more – electric 500, hybrid 600, hybrid Panda, and diesel(!) Tipo.
I’ll bet it’s a hoot to drive. My 500e is a go-kart, and something that weighs even less is probably even more fun.
I would like to drive one in a city, but I have 0 plans to buy a new one.
Oh, I’m certainly not buying it, but when the lease is $33 a month, leasing it makes a ton of sense.
I drove a Focus Ecoboost hybrid in Germany that was manual and a hybrid. Actually, according to this link the hybrid was only manual transmission:
https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/ford/focus-st/10-ecoboost-hybrid-mhev-155-st-line-x-edition-5dr/first-drive
Anyway, it was a “mild hybrid” like this, and it was decent.
There it is. A true unicorn that enthusiasts have begged for…a small, affordable, hybrid, manual car with a soul. Now will any of us actually buy it? Of course not!
I am not crazy enough to buy an electric fiat. I thought about getting a 500e when they were dirt cheap but electricity and italian built don’t mix well.
Dunno – I’ve had my leased 500e for about 1300 miles now, and it’s been great so far. It’s terribly fun to drive, and it just works. It’s perfect for my commuting and daily driving tasks. I’m not going to buy out the lease when it’s up, though. 19K is too high of a residual for a 2 year old EV with limited range.
But if they bring the Hybrid to the US, and it’s actually good, and it’s around $25K, I’d give it a very serious consideration as my next city car after the lease on the 500e is up.
1,300 is not a long distance, thats less than me visiting my parents twice a year.
for most people, that isn’t a real car.
for most
peopleAmericans, that isn’t a real car.We are neither the only market or use case for a vehicle. For those who are, the 500e and the 500 Hybrid are certainly “real cars”.
I see plenty of Fiats in Chicago, where a small get-around makes sense.
I have a car so I can leave the city
If I’d had it longer, I’d have longer term data. That said, there’s not really a lot to go wrong with it. I could wish for manual door latches, but otherwise, it’s pretty simple.
Except for all the well-documented issues that could potentially go wrong depending on the model year, sure
*shrug* It’s leased, so it’s all warranty, anyway. But it’s got a lot fewer electronics than a lot of new cars, and I’m a fan of that.
I’m glad you like it, but I would be hard pressed to imagine a scenario where buying one would actually be a good idea.
1300 miles is not enough to convince me they don’t have problems.
The unbelievably cheap lease deals on the other hand…
I must be one of the few people on Earth who thinks these things are hideous looking.
The people who spend their days online complaining about car avalability don’t actually buy new cars anyway
The droopy squinty eyed headlights and whatever is going on with the grill made me think the car was cursing up a storm.
It looks like an emoji with its eyes half closed
I low-key love the angry headlights. Cartoonish details work on a 500.
Stellantis saw how popular angry eyes were on Jeeps and decided to give the cute little fiat a split headlight Napoleon Complex
My girlfriend said that she thought it looked like it was up to something.
Shenanigans at the very least—possibly heinous