Fiat has announced that its 600e electric SUV has been awarded the Band 1 electric car grant discount by the UK government, which means a tasty £1,500 off the car if you buy one.
The Italian carmaker says that its retro styled EV now starts from £25,495 thanks to the government discount and a recent bout of price list juggling the company announced back in January.
Carmakers have to apply to the Department for Transport if they would like their car to be awarded the electric car grant, and the level of discount is decided by some secret environmental numbers that promote cars built closer to the UK and with locally sourced batteries.
The 600e has been on sale since 2023, effectively replacing the old 500X model that also combined SUV cues and the styling of the smaller 500 city car.
It initially went on sale with just the 54kWh electric version, which is rated for 254 miles of WLTP range, but a petrol version was later added.
The 600e was the first car launched under Fiat’s new philosophy of not selling any more grey cars, which it derided as boring despite consistently being the UK’s most popular new car colour for a number of years.
The Fiat is based on the same Stellantis engineering platform as a number of other models in the group’s line-up, including the Jeep Avenger, Alfa Romeo Junior, Peugeot e-2008 and Vauxhall Mokka, which led to some criticism at launch that the car was not distinctive enough.
We like the style and compact footprint of the car, as well as nice touches like the standard fit heat pump.
The new lower price that’s come thank to the plug-in car grant also makes the 600e more compelling – when it first went on sale the entry level model’s price was a slightly tougher to swallow £33k.
