First bad news for the new Fiat 500 Hybrid approximately 2 months from the opening of orders. The new car from Fiat which is produced in Mirafiori and which should contribute to the growth of production at the Stellantis plant with over 100 thousand units every year, in recent hours it has faced the first setback of its career. Indeed the famous site Car week he tested the car and his review, however, was not particularly positive, in fact quite the opposite.
Autoweek criticizes the new Fiat 500 Hybrid: “It’s slow and doesn’t even look like a hybrid
The new Fiat 500 Hybrid was tested for Autoweek by Stephan Vermeulen who was absolutely not kind to the car. Evidently in the Netherlands the press is less complacent than in Italy where little is needed to convince the “video reviewers” who often can only speak well of the car that is kindly made available to them by the car manufacturers themselves. Vermeulen first of all criticized the electrical assistance of the 12 volt hybrid system which according to him in real life is very minimal if not almost non-existent.
“The electrical assistance offered by 12 volt hybrid system is virtually unremarkable: the only sign of a starter generator capable of storing energy is the relatively large green bar on the instrument panel. While driving, you don’t feel any increase in power and Fiat doesn’t even specify the nominal value of the electric assistance,” he said.
Not even the engine seems to convince the journalist and tester who believes it has taken a step back compared to the electric version of the model with its 65 horsepower which actually seems too low even for a compact car like this. “The step backwards with this engine is particularly noticeable if you’ve ever experienced the ease with which it moves Electric Fiat 500e, con95 o 118 CV. With that unity, the electric 500 she is a true urban sprinter, agile and effortless. But on the road the 500 Hybrid has to really work hard, just like the original 500 once did” he declared. According to the Autoweek journalist in simple terms the 65 horses of the model are not exactly exciting even in the city and the lack of power is defined as “painful” especially if you use the car on the motorway.
This is also considering the fact that to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h the new Fiat 500 Hybrid takes something like 16 seconds. Another not particularly positive thing according to Autoweek concerns consumption, 5.2 liters per 100 km as stated by Fiat itself, which are not considered a particularly brilliant result.
However, it must be said that in this review of the new Fiat 500 Hybrid there are also some positive aspects that have been highlighted. We are referring for example to the presence of the manual gearbox which has made the car very fun to drive in the city given that now only a few cars still allow you to change gear. The driveability and interiors were also promoted, where the materials chosen and the general quality were praised. Obviously nothing to say even about the retro style which is typical of the Fiat model which still continues to be appreciated all over the world today.
