500 (Electric) New Fiat 500 kickstarts the year with Company Car Today Award

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500 (Electric) New Fiat 500 kickstarts the year with Company Car Today Award

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  • New Fiat 500 named Small Electric Vehicle of the Year by Company Car Today
  • Acknowledged for its design and impressive battery range, New 500 picks up where it left off last year, having scooped nine awards in 2021
New Fiat 500 continues to receive plaudits into 2022, picking up Small Electric Vehicle of the Year in Company Car Today’s annual definitive list of cars that can serve any business requirement.

Building on the success of last year, judges praised the New 500 for its attractive price point, practicality, and design features.

New Fiat 500 is the first fully-electric Fiat designed from the ground up. The car provides a raft of best-in-class features such as Level 2 Autonomous Driving technologies, a variety of battery options and a substantial driving range of up to 199 miles (WLTP) – the longest range of any electric city car on the market today.

The car also boasts 85kW fast charging, enabling the battery to reach 80 per cent range in just 35 minutes, allowing business customers to get back on the road as quickly as possible, enhancing business efficiency and fleet utility.

Paul Barker, Editor, Company Car Today, said: “The New 500 is a brilliant reinvention of an icon by Fiat, offering a well-priced and appealing electric vehicle with a battery range that makes it a practical day-to-day car.

“We’re really impressed with the attractive new little Fiat and it’s a worthy CCT100 Small Electric Vehicle of the Year against incredibly high-quality competition in the sector.”

The New 500 being the first fully-electric, zero emissions car in the Fiat line-up and company car drivers can currently benefit from 0% Benefit in Kind (BIK) tax, increasing the attractiveness of the car for business customers.

Additionally, the New 500 is congestion charge and ULEZ-exempt, making it the perfect tool for businesses in both urban and suburban environments.

Greg Taylor, Fiat UK Managing Director, said: “The New Fiat 500 made waves amongst industry experts in 2021 and we are of course delighted to see this praise continue into 2022 for our first ever fully-electric car. The New 500 range, available as both a hatchback and a convertible, as well as two battery options and multiple trim levels, means that there is a New 500 for a wide range of business requirements and budgets.”

The CCT100 is Company Car Today’s definitive list of the 100 cars that can meet any business requirement.

When choosing award winners, Company Car Today take 20 categories and shortlist the top five cars in each, which are then assessed independently by a panel of automotive and fleet experts. Some of the key factors each vehicle is judged on that make it an excellent company car include emissions, price, running costs, company car tax, practicality, desirability, breadth of offering and the driving experience. The top in each become Company Car Today CCT100 Award winners.
 

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I'm going to say this is a pretty confusing name choice.

From what I can gather from the press releases and FIAT's own website, the "New" part of the name isn't an adjective, it's actually part of the name "New 500" means the electric version. I guess they want to differentiate from the 500e which was the old version, but surely they could have come up with something better than this.
 
It's great looking car. So much better than the Mini electric. Can we actually buy one? How many will be made? What is the delivery lead time.
The fast charge time (if you can find a suitable charger) suggests it's a very small battery.
What is the real life driving range (not the WTP fake data given on sales literature)?
What are the other costs associated with ownership?
 
It's great looking car. So much better than the Mini electric. Can we actually buy one? How many will be made? What is the delivery lead time.
The fast charge time (if you can find a suitable charger) suggests it's a very small battery.
What is the real life driving range (not the WTP fake data given on sales literature)?
What are the other costs associated with ownership?
They're pretty easy to pick up virtually instantly. There are about 250 currently on the "cars in stock" section on the FIAT website.
I'll try and answer a couple of the other questions from my experience with the 42KWh version.

There are a lot of fast chargers now. I'm coping in Cornwall (where they are a lot more scarce than most places) without home charging. The number of new ones going in is mind blowing. Building a 16 bay charger in Plymouth, 10 bays in Victoria on the A30, 8 in Camborne, 3 in Trerulefoot etc, etc and this is in one of the least populated parts of England. The battery isn't particularly small and is one of the largest in a small car, but the charging is fast.

In the real world, If I had 5% charge and plugged into the Council charger in Bodmin for 40 minutes or so, I'd end up at 85% charge. This would cost me about £10.10 and at this time of year (April and around 12 degrees) on my single carriageway commute (which is a long way from being flat) would get me about 140 miles, so it's costing about 7.2p per mile. If I had a home charger with an EV tariff, this would be under 1p per mile. Given that at current 167p per litre prices 40 mpg equates to 19p per mile, this stacks up.

Servicing is predicted to be about £90 per year apparently (although I'd like to hear from other 500 Electric owners on this). There are no fluids, no gearbox, no clutch and the brakes get minimal usage because of regenerative motor braking which recharges the battery.

On top of this, it's a riot to drive. It does 0-30mph in about 3 seconds and the heavy battery under the car as well as the 195 tyres absolutely glue it to the road. It's the equivalent of 116 BHP and 210 NM of torque. It does top out at about 90 but will do that without any stress.

Oh, and it's almost silent. You can hear the tyres moving through puddles at 60 MPH.

I know they're a bit on the expensive side but this is easily the best car I've ever had after quite a few including new BMWs etc.
 
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