- Fiat’s American lineup remains tiny, with just the slow-selling 500e electric vehicle on offer in the U.S.
- But a new report says the company could revive its high-performance gas-powered model, the 500 Abarth, soon
Fiat, the iconic Italian automaker behind the cute little 500, sells cars in America. You could be forgiven for not knowing that.
America’s roughly 300 Fiat dealers sold 84 cars nationwide in July, according to Kelley Blue Book data. Ford dealers sold 69,877 F-Series trucks that month.
In March, their best month this year, Fiat dealers sold 247 cars.
Fiat’s only current product is the all-electric Fiat 500e, a fashionable urban runabout well-suited to the streets of Rome, but with limited appeal in Idaho. Yes, there are two Fiat dealers in Idaho.
A new report, however, says Fiat may reintroduce the one model that ever earned a cult following in the States. The U.K.’s AutoCar reports that the company “is mulling a return to petrol power with a hot hatch based on the new Fiat 500 Hybrid.” It would carry the Abarth name.
The 500 Abarth was a fun little turbocharged version of the 500, sold in the U.S. from model years 2014 through 2019. It offered just 135 horsepower in its final version, but that was a lot of power for such a tiny car. It wore a scorpion logo. A delightful growl and lively handling made it a toy performance car, fun at neighborhood speeds, that earned a small following in the U.S.
AutoCar doesn’t address whether the Abarth would make its way to the U.S. But it’s hard to imagine American dealers would turn down the chance to sell it.
After all, they have little else to sell. Fiat has been making the rounds of the American auto show circuit this year with an adorable little electric take on the classic Fiat Topolino. But it’s effectively a golf cart unlikely to ever be legal on American roads.
