Abarth 600e SUV

175kW 54kWh 5dr Auto [2025]

Abarth has existed since the late 1940s, producing some iconic cars. But it’s best known for tuning up other manufacturers' vehicles, turning modest family cars into hot hatchbacks, and enjoying a long-standing partnership with fellow Italian brand Fiat.

The most recent example is its version of the Fiat 500, which converted the popular, cutesy city car into a muscley, fun racer.

Now, it's gone back to Fiat again to tune up one of its 600s.

If you're unfamiliar with the Fiat 600, it's essentially an elongated version of the 500, with five doors instead of three. It is also a touch wider and higher, as it's technically classed as a crossover SUV.

The Fiat 600 is also available in an all-electric form, known as the 600e, and Abarth has chosen to pimp up this battery-powered model.

This means that one of Abarth’s iconic features – its exhaust note – is absent from this new car.

It has done the same with the all-electric Fiat 500e – but the lack of a combustion engine hasn’t seemed to suppress the public’s enthusiasm for it.

But since the 600 is bigger, it's aimed at those who want something like a 500 while adding some more space and practicality.

And bigger means heavier, which could ruin the handling and straight-line performance - sacrificing two of the key reasons to lease an Abarth version of such a car in the first place.

Mind you, the Abarth 600e shares much of its underpinnings with the Veloce performance version of Alfa Romeo’s new small electric SUV, the Junior. That is a good sign indeed.

So, how does it stack up? We have taken one for a test drive around a track – and on road in Italy - to see what it’s all about.