The Abarth 500e is inspired by Mission Impossible
The Abarth 500e should hit Canadian soil in 2024. The small car will return to the market after a few years of absence, but this time it will be electric. To unveil the product, Abarth is launching an advertising campaign in partnership with the franchise Impossible mission. The campaign, calling itself Mission Possible features the Abarth 500e and Tom Cruise.
An action movie script
It’s Tom Cruise’s character, Ethan Hunt, who is driving the car. Caught in the heat of the moment, the character jumps into a classic yellow Fiat 500 Abarth and flees. That’s when we realize this Fiat 500 is actually an electrified version of the classic model. In a race against time, the little car roams the streets of Rome until nightfall. In one fell swoop, the original 1960s model turns into the Abarth 500e, giving way to the new version of the vehicle.
According to the company, this partnership allows the brand to perfectly translate its main objective, which is to transform ordinary cars into something extraordinary. The manufacturer adds that Carlo Abarth, founder of the company in the 1950s, aimed to give everyone the chance to live their passion for driving on a daily basis. It’s impossible at the time of this writing to know if this is the case with the Abarth 500e, but the short advertisement suggests that the little car will be quite dynamic.
The Abarth 500e
Thanks to its electric architecture, as well as better weight distribution, instant torque and a wider wheelbase, it would be faster than the older gasoline-powered version, according to Arbarth. The performance car is also about 300 kilos lighter than its predecessor, bringing its total weight to 1440 kilos. Equipped with a 42 kilowatt-hour battery mated to a 113.7 kilowatt electric motor, the Abarth 500e produces 153 horsepower and 173 lb-ft of torque. This promises an acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in less than 7 seconds.
The announced autonomy is 265 kilometers according to the WLTP analysis cycle. This will certainly be reduced when the tests are carried out with the EPA. The Abarth 500e is equipped with an 85 kilowatt fast charging system. According to the manufacturer, it only takes less than 5 minutes to gain 40 kilometers of autonomy. Still according to the company, fast charging allows you to reach 80% of the autonomy in 35 minutes.
The car should arrive on our continent in 2024. Currently, on the manufacturer’s European site, it is possible to choose from five colors, namely Antidote White, Venom Black, Adrenaline Red, as well as two new colors called Acid Green and Poison Blue. North American prices are still unknown at the time of this writing, but the entry-level version of the Abarth 500e sells for 36,900 euros which is equivalent, in a simple and unofficial conversion, to 54 000 Canadian dollars.
