Is 75 miles enough range for the Fiat 500e? (review)

It’s the end of my first day behind the wheel of the 2013 Fiat 500e and the little Italian hatchback is parked curbside in front of my San Francisco apartment. Chirping the alarm as I walk away, I can’t help but marvel at how ordinary the electric car looks. Unless you note the missing tailpipe, there’s not much to distinguish the 500e from the other Fiat 500, this one gasoline-powered, parked at the end of the block.

This, in my opinion, is a very good thing. Not everyone wants to be caught behind the wheel of a car that looks like a low-flying saucer.

Eagle-eyed automotive enthusiasts will spot the unique front and rear bumpers, the “5ooe” badging, and — if they peer into the window — the lack of a shift knob, but our Grigio silver example lacked even the white bumper insets and bright Arancio Elettrico orange paint that appears in most of the electric Fiat’s publicity shots. In a city filled with Mini Coopers, Smart ForTwos, and of course other Fiat 500 variants, the 500e doesn’t exactly turn heads like a Tesla does.