Fiat 500 Review & Prices

The old petrol Fiat 500 had a great run, being in production virtually unchanged for 17 years. Fiat expected the Fiat 500 Electric to pick up the slack, but uninspiring sales means it’s done the unthinkable - it’s taken an electric car and converted it to a petrol one. Usually things happen the other way around.

It’s like a barn conversion, but instead of turning a farm building into a family home you’ve found a three-bed semi and started storing hay and a combine harvester inside. Technically possible, but a bit weird.

Despite the Hybrid name, the new 500 is just a mild hybrid, so predominantly petrol-powered. City cars are a rarity these days but it’ll go up against the likes of the Kia Picanto, Toyota Aygo X and Mini Cooper. The electric-powered 500 remains on sale, and other small EVs such as the Renault 5 or Kia EV2 will provide strong competition.

The design is unchanged from the electric 500, with the only addition a small slot in the front end to provide cooling for the engine. That means it’s stunningly cute, with expressive headlights featuring ‘eyebrow’ daytime running lights, flush-fit door handles, and an array of bright paint finishes to help it stand out.

The interior hasn’t changed much either, with the exception of the six-speed selector for the manual gearbox shoehorned quite successfully into the middle of the dashboard. Like the previous petrol 500, it’s set high up and close to hand. The rest of the interior is as it is on the 500 Electric, so you get a cool circular dial display, widescreen infotainment, and a flash of body-coloured trim across the dash.

Dimensions are unchanged so the new 500 Hybrid isn’t going to be a car to recommend to family buyers. The rear seats are just about fine for small kids or very short adults, though accessing them through the three-door body is quite difficult. The boot, meanwhile, is just 183 litres, so you might prefer to use the 500 as a two-seater car and save the rear bench for some additional luggage.

Under the bonnet, Fiat’s engineers have got rid of the battery and electric motor and somehow shoehorned in a 1.0-litre petrol engine, manual gearbox and fuel tank. With just 65hp, though, the 500 Hybrid is one of the slowest cars on sale, with 0-62mph taking a yawning 16.2 seconds.

It’s not super efficient either, at least on paper. Official fuel consumption is 53.3mpg which is beaten by a lot of much bigger cars, and absolutely eclipsed by the Toyota Aygo X with its self-charging hybrid engine.

We’ve not driven the new 500 Hybrid yet, but we’d bet it drives very similarly to the 500 Electric. That means it’ll be fabulous around town - nippy, light and easy, though a bit bouncy over speed bumps and potholes. Expect it to feel a bit wayward on the motorway, though, and that lack of power means you’ll have to work it quite hard to keep up with traffic on a country road.

Check out our best Fiat 500 Hybrid deals right here on Carwow, or see what other Fiat deals we have to offer. You can search for a used Fiat 500 here and remember that Carwow can even help you to sell your old car when the time comes.

With prices starting under £19,000, the 500 Hybrid is one of the cheapest new cars on sale. It undercuts the Toyota Aygo X by more than £2,500, though the Kia Picanto is even cheaper still at just over £17,000. Fiat’s own Grande Panda Hybrid has an identical starting price, but has more power and an automatic gearbox plus loads more space, so it’s definitely a more pragmatic option.

The 500 Hybrid in ‘Icon’ trim gets 16-inch alloy wheels, rear parking sensors, climate control, a 10.3-inch infotainment screen and LED headlights. The posher La Prima costs an extra £2,000 but adds 17-inch wheels, a sunroof, heated front seats and a JBL sound system.