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The Fiat brand is a successful brand in many parts of the world, dominant in some. There are few reasons why Fiat can not or should not be successful in the North American market. To accomplish that there is no better product and no better time to relaunch the brand here than this new 500 right now. Let’s be honest, they need to begin somewhere obviously.
The last Fiat launch, in spite of the incredibly amusing and witty commercials, was poorly planned and poorly executed. The original 500, was not only the wrong vehicle for the NA market at that time, but being launched with no supporting characters in a broader brand portfolio was just a major mistake. Fiat globally has so many excellent offerings, that together, could be the small,affordable, reliable brand that people here want. In spite of the close resemblance, this new 500 is completely redefined, more appealing and being all electric, spot on for today’s North American urban population. It needs company, it needs a clear, well defined segment and clear mission statement for consumers. However, most important, Fiat needs dealerships committed to implementing the plan and the Italian workers to deliver a reliable compact product line that underpins that plan and that puts that “Fix It Again Tony” legacy to rest once and for all. This new 500 must and can start that revival with clear focus and some company in showrooms. This 500 can be the urban electric like nothing else on the market, really. Move over Toyota, the Italians are returning in force. Good decision Fiat.

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OK, I admit I'm biased. I believe that the original California compliance Fiat 500e was the best of all the compliances offered last decade. Many will argue that the Tesla powered Toyota RAV4, the Chevy Spark with its Volt technology in the mix, or the VW E-Golf was better. Out of all of the compliance cars only FCA seems to have used the opportunity to use it as a research and development program. The new Fiat 500e is better in many ways while staying true to the original formula. Fiat addressed the weaknesses and built upon the strengths. The competitors have all introduced battery EVs which don't use the powertrain technology of the originals. Toyota's program has fluctuated since they fell out with Tesla. They haven't outsourced the engineering unlike some of the others.

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OK, I admit I'm biased. I believe that the original California compliance Fiat 500e was the best of all the compliances offered last decade. Many will argue that the Tesla powered Toyota RAV4, the Chevy Spark with its Volt technology in the mix, or the VW E-Golf was better. Out of all of the compliance cars only FCA seems to have used the opportunity to use it as a research and development program. The new Fiat 500e is better in many ways while staying true to the original formula. Fiat addressed the weaknesses and built upon the strengths. The competitors have all introduced battery EVs which don't use the powertrain technology of the originals. Toyota's program has fluctuated since they fell out with Tesla. They haven't outsourced the engineering unlike some of the others.

Agree. The original 500e was my first EV, because they were insanely cheap coming off lease. It's lead to 2 more EVs being added. i3 and ipace. It's only 2 major faults in a modern EV market is it's range and lack of rapid charging. Other than that, it's a blast of a city car. I've told myself I'm keeping it until the abarth electric makes it to the states.

I think Fiat missed an opportunity to improve the original 500e over it's life cycle. They could have improved it like BMW did with the i3 or Nissan with the leaf. Which would have been easily done by Fiat because the same Samsung prismatic line of cells in the Fiat were also in the i3. Had the last couple of years 500e had say 150+mile range and a rapid charging, it would have been a great seller in the metro US.

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