Hot (electric) hatch
 

Is that really a thing?

https://www.evo.co.uk/abarth/500/205...-goes-electric

I had an Abarth 500 for 5 years, it was a love hate relationship. Loved the character and the noise from the race spec exhaust. Hated the reliability and dealer network who were useless.

But EVs are supposed to be better, mine had 170 bhp and cost £15,170 brand new. 13 years have passed. This is less powerful and £20,000 more expensive. That's backwards evolution if you ask me. Fail.

The fact it is made by FIAT says it all for me. Fix It Again Tomorrow.

FIAT wouldn't be my first (or top several) choice for a current daily driver or a collectible. If I was suddenly filling a half acre warehouse with cars I might put a 124 or an X1/9 somewhere in there.

I had a mate who bought a 124 Sports Coupe. Lovely car, a joy to drive, but required more maintenance than an Abrams tank. Then it rusted away!

The Italians always know how to make cool cars and bikes. The price is way too expensive, but nowadays everything is. I never owned any Italian car or bike, but I always lusted after them. The problem is that when I get enough money to buy their products, I rather buy something else that's a bit better made and sorted.

Italian cars are so unreliable and the electrics on Italian bikes are made from wet string. I had a mate who had several Ducatis and they were never away from the dealer for electrical issues.
A friend of my brothers used to get a choice of a company car and one time elected for an Alfa Romeo Twin Spark. He said it was an amazing car to drive but in his two-year contract had several very expensive repairs required. He said it was great as a company car but a money pit for a private owner. I have had dealings with a few FIATs and they were all rust buckets.

Couple weeks ago, I saw a 500e with California HOV stickers managed to make its way to out here on the East Coast. As with the Spark EV, reviewers praised it for having better performance than the ICE model.

Performance EVs are limited by the battery. In order to safely and reliably deliver the energy a high output motor would need requires more cells. Long range Teslas get an acceleration boost over the standard range just from the bigger battery.

So a mini EV is going to be at a disadvantage when it comes to performance models. At least you don't have to wait for an engine to spool up to get the torque it does have.

The thing about an EV is you have no gears to change. Unless you have a supercar you cannot do 0-60 in first gear but that is effectively what an EV does. No lifting off to change gear, no pause (however brief) between gears. I have had automatics and off the line, I was quicker than cars much more powerful than mine. Once the speed got up the more powerful car would haul me in rapidly at which time I used to lift off and let them go. That is what an EV is like but with the addition of masses of torque.

My issue with the Abarth version is that Abarth to fiat is what AMG is to mercedes. Thier in house tuning company is supposed to make more powerful, tuned sporty version of outgoing models. This is slower and less powerful than models that were sold over a decade ago which is just stupid...150 odd bhp is nothing for a modern car with all its heavy safety tech, especially an EV with a heavy battery too. Your average family hatchback EV has a minimum of 200 bhp, this should too. The Renault Mégane etech is a far better looking, larger, more powerful (220 bhp) for similar money.