Electric Abarth 500 no longer a secret - photos leak week before debut

That did not take long at all - just a few hours after Abarth took to Instagram and in a cryptic post announced its first ever electric 500 is coming on November 22. The “More Abarth Than Ever” was spotted preparing for an official photoshoot and here we are - the new electric Abarth 500 in its full glory.

There are still no details available when it comes to the specification. Abarth New 500 will keep the front electric motor layout and will use the bigger 42 kWh battery and to live up to its legacy, it will have to feature more than 117 HP that the standard electric 500 has on tap.

The speculations are rife at this point as to what power we can expect from Abarth. For comparison, the 595 and 695 make 180 HP and 190 HP respectively but weigh about 360 kg less than the base Fiat 500 EV. Electric Abarth 500 will need to address the extra weight and deliver acceleration time around 6 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h to be “More Abarth Than Ever”.

The issue at hand is Fiat’s platform - Abarth is based on the same Fiat Mini platform that is used for many other vehicles and it was adapted for electric powertrain. The successor of it is the STLA Small platform from Stellantis and the first car to use it is the new Jeep Avenger.

Abarth can pick and choose electric motors from the Stellantis’ vast inventory but the 42 kWH battery will limit its choices. The Jeep Avenger EV comes with a 115 kW electric motor - that’s 154 HP and 260 Nm of torque. The torque figure is the secret sauce for the acceleration and this motor beats the Abarth 695’s torque by 10 Nm - is this the motor we’ll see in the new electric pocket rocket from Italy?

Certainly it would make a lot of sense for the company to use what’s already available off the shelf, afterall electric Abarth needs to remain affordable and developing a bespoke powertrain is simply too expensive. The 154 HP electric motor from the Jeep Avenger can be wound up a bit higher and can deliver as much as 180, maybe even 200 HP but the torque figure won’t change.

We have just over a week left until the debut of the first electric Abarth and all the questions will be answered on November 22. Will it be faster than 695? How expensive is it going to be? For now it’s a good idea to start making room in the garage - this one will be a keeper.

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