Just imagine: giving the 500 a 3rd side door on the passenger side! The Fiat city car regains the lead over its competitors in its electric version.
As a sign of the times, the New 500, presented last spring as a cabrio and 3-door hatchback, introduced a particularly powerful 100% electric engine. But Fiat has created a stir with this unexpected release: the 3+1. The challenge for Fiat in encouraging owners of the 500 to update their tried and trusted ride was not only meeting their expectations, but anticipating them. It’s an old marketing principle illustrated by this clever solution: keeping the same dimensions as the other
This third rear-hinged “suicide” door opens outwards in the opposite direction. Since there’s no central pillar, you can access the passenger compartment more comfortably (+ 44cm access width), to make it easier to load items or place children in the back seat. When the third door is closed, there’s visually no difference from the other 500s. And the weight increase is limited to 30kg, meaning no significant effect on handling or mileage.
For optimum safety, the front door needs to be opened before doing the same to the rear door to prevent one of the rear passengers from inadvertently opening it. On a side note, this is a return to the model's roots in a way, since the first 500 from 1957 featured rear-opening doors.
This 500 3+1, which is priced between a hatchback and a coupé (*), seems to be a perfect addition to the noble family. But THE detail that changes everything is the Acoustic Vehicle Alert System (AVAS), which is now mandatory for electric vehicles at speeds up to 20 km/h (12 mph). The AVAS, whose role is to alert pedestrians of the arrival of an electric car, which is silent by nature, is practically the same for all cars: a synthetic hum as common as it is anonymous. But for the New 500, Fiat has chosen to use the opening notes from Nino Rota’s melody for Amarcord, a film by Fellini, in itself a piece of Italy. Simple and elegant - we love it.
And because it's you, here’s an insider tit bit: you can hear the first few bars of Amarcord between the 40th and 43rd seconds of the video at the top of the article... Thank you SoBARNES!
For further information, go to: Fiat.com
(*) Starting at €36,900 in the Prima launch version, and from €29,500 in the Passion version.
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