Production is due to start this November, but a few examples have already been built, showing us that the hybrid and electric 500 look almost identical. There is, however, a thin slot on the face of the hybrid, presumably to feed air into its minute engine, and obviously the dashboard has been revised slightly to accommodate the manual shifter. 

Fiat 500 Hybrid couldn’t come soon enough 

The latest iteration of the Fiat 500 was introduced in 2020, and is an undeniably sweet car. However, it has only been available as an EV until now, limiting its appeal and sales, which it seems the brand is now willing to admit was a mistake by fitting the mild-hybrid set-up that, in its own words, “brings the 500 back to the people, blending the heritage and technology developed with the electric version into a more accessible form”.

Head of Fiat Europe Gaetano Thorel told Auto Express earlier this year: “The new 500 is one of the best cars Fiat has ever had from a design and technology standpoint. The fact that we have limited the possibility for the majority of consumers to enjoy the new 500 really makes me very sad. So when the engineers found a way to put the engine inside, giving us the go [ahead] for the new 500 hybrid, it was one of the best days of my life.”

To do this, Fiat’s engineering team has had to rework the latest 500’s electric architecture to shoehorn the powertrain of the previous 500 hybrid – which has been off sale in the UK for nearly a year – into the nose.