The next electric Fiat 600 is also set to sport the signature Abarth, Fiat brand manager Olivier François confirmed to Autocar magazine.
This supercharged compact SUV will join the 500 as Abarth's second electric car, marking the start of a new model era since the withdrawal of the 124 Spider in 2019.
Olivier François, CEO of Fiat and Abarth, prefers to keep this sporty SUV under wraps. However, when asked about the feasibility of an Abarth 600, he doesn't hesitate to say: " It's a no-brainer."
Scheduled to enter service in early 2025 (the same time interval as between the arrival of the Fiat 500 and its Abarth variant), the Abarth 600 is sure to bring a significant increase in power over the base model.
In the case of the 500, the more responsive engine injects 154 hp and 235 Nm of torque respectively. This compares with 118 hp and 200 Nm for the standard 500. If the 600 is subject to a similar increase, it could reach around 190 hp.
Despite its SUV status, the 600 Abarth should retain the Scorpion Track driving mode. On its fastest setting, you can expect to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in just 7.0 seconds.
It remains to be seen whether Abarth will opt for a second engine on the rear axle for better grip and increased power... but that's unlikely!
The 600 Abarth will be distinguished by an array of sporty details, including bucket seats, an Alcantara steering wheel, original paint choices and customized wheel designs.
And for added spice, it may even borrow the concept of the 500, incorporating a speaker to broadcast the sound of an artificial engine.
Why not? We're losing the Abarth spirit, but that's already the case with the 500e. There will surely be customers for this 600th Abarth, so they'd be wrong to deprive themselves of it.
We're not far from an aberration...
It's not an aberration, but the downfall of Abarth and everything it stood for thanks to the internal combustion engine.
So we'll have a battery-powered thing with a buzer that goes vroom vroom.
The prospect of disaster.
And this crap will sell...
As expected... However, it will take two years to adapt the Abarth 500e equipment to the 600! I guess we have to leave room to Peugeot for a 2008 GTe or whatever the 200hp version of the model is called. The Abarth 600 will be shorter, lighter and therefore potentially more fun to drive 🙂 Otherwise I hope they keep the "one pedal" system unavailable elsewhere at Stellantis. Is a gearshift simulator an option?
Abarth is thermal point bart
Lamborghini is all about V12s, and yet...
Of course, we could be delighted by the arrival of a new Abarth to support the 500e in a "range" of... only one model! But what a pity! Can we still talk about "real" Abarths? Initially small cars prepared by "The Sorcerer" for competition and, until the latest 500/595/695 thermal range, at least the heritage of exhaust lines that have Le Bon son! Right from the basic version... And even more so with the "Monza" pot, or even the Akra! Now it's "at best" an ersarz of electronically generated engine noise that doesn't fool anyone for very long! It's unlikely to be any different on the basis of the future 600 suv! It's a sad time to be living in an electric vehicle, which, while in some cases providing performance (but not too much here, especially as the battery drains!) smoothes out any "mechanical" character (inevitably), all the more so on an Abarth which, even in internal combustion, provided more sensations and character than real performance. Abarth, until proven otherwise, is nothing more than a marketing blazon like an "Alpine spirit"! At least Alpine still really exists, and the models based on Renault large series have the honesty to carry the prefix "esprit". It would be more honest, actually, to call them "esprit Abarth"; or rather "spirit Abarth" to emphasize the Latin side.
In the meantime, for those for whom Abarth still means something... Fortunately, there's the second-hand market to perpetuate even the magical sound of thermal Abarths.
I totally agree, except that Alpine is going electric too. It's true that the 124 left too soon and the 4C-based Abarth was sorely missed.
In fact, the latest Honda Civic has only one gear and simulates a few passages, which is really impressive... If the brand wants to give itself the means, it will offer a convincing experience. Of course, Karl Abarth was originally concerned with exhausts, and there are none in an EV, but Lamborghini was also originally building tractors, and perhaps even longer than it has been building supercars...
Yes, because 🚜 Lamborghini tractors still exist. There's nothing to stop you looking at the weight issue with the Abarth versions.
As much as the Abarth 500e is a natural evolution of FCA's 500e project, the 600 and its possible Abarth variant is a Stellantis project, despite father Olivier François, with a common database from PSA (chassis/powertrain/batteries) and certainly a similar model from Peugeot...
I agree with Dje, in the end it's more marketing badgage where engineers and technicians have been replaced by electronics engineers and acousticians: forget the marmitta, the sporty and the popular of Carlo's time!