Abarth 600e review

As you probably realise by now, this largely depends on which trim you've chosen. The Competizione gains proper bucket seats with swankier upholstery, which does much more to create a sense of occasion over the Fiat version.

One niggle is the vents in the backs of the bucket seats: should you be at odds with your rear passengers (and you will, because they won’t have any legroom), they've got easy access to your kidneys. Death by a thousand pokes. We’ve also found that most cars on this Stellantis platform force you to sit with your legs too close to the pedals while your arms are still reaching for the steering wheel.

The Competizione also gets more badging and Alcantara in places like the centre console cover, whereas the Turismo makes do with vanilla Stellantis parts and lacks pretty basic equipment like heated seats and a rear-view camera.

Ah yes, how’s the tech?

The 10.25in infotainment screen is responsive and easy to navigate. There’s a TomTom-backed satnav as standard, but we found that the map display wasn’t very intuitive to follow. Fortunately there’s Apple/Android connectivity as standard too, so you can deploy your app of choice.

The menus are laid out well though, and Abarth has even thrown in some funky game-like gauges and readouts for when (!) you hit the track, measuring things like g forces and torque. You also get ambient lighting, a six-speaker audio kit and a few USB slots – though only one for your back passengers to fight over.

The interior SFX need some work – the indicators sound like a slow handclap and the warning bongs from the safety kit are infernally loud. Fortunately, you can program the latter to turn off with a long press of a dashboard switch.

Is it spacious?

A lot of small crossovers look bigger than they actually are, and the same goes for the 600e: there’s lots of headroom but a questionable amount of legroom. Front seat passengers have decent footwell space but at the cost of any meaningful room in the rear. So either those up front are happy, or nobody’s happy.

In the Competizione those cutouts in the bucket seats add a little nook for you to stick your knees in, but the seat backs are so hard you’d have to be a glass-half-full type to see that as a win.

The boot measures 360 litres – 40 less than the Alfa Junior – and 1,231 litres with the seats popped down. It’s bigger than the Alpine A290’s boot, but nothing to write home about.