- Fiat confirms 500 Ibrida Hybrid will launch in late 2025 or early 2026.
- Model will be built in Italy alongside slow-selling electric 500e that’s being modified to take hybrid power.
- Current 17-year-old Panda-based 500 won’t meet EU cybersecurity regulations after this summer.
Fiat’s retro 500 really is embracing the old this time. The automaker has confirmed that it’s turning its current all-electric 500e into a hybrid to help offset lackluster demand for the EV.
The 500e will continue to be offered as a fully electric vehicle, but less than two years from now it’ll be joined by a hybrid sister created by reverse-engineering the EV to accommodate combustion power. Fiat says the new car, called 500 Ibrida, will be launched “between late 2025 and early 2026.”
Related: Stellantis To Build Hybrid Fiat 500 And Jeep Compass In Italy
Even the earlier of those dates can’t come soon enough because Fiat is dropping the current 17-year-old ICE 500 after this summer. The Panda-based hatch, which dates back to 2007 is still incredibly popular with buyers, but it’s less loved by regulators who say it doesn’t meet with new EU cybersecurity laws coming into force this year. Those same laws have also forced Porsche to axe the combustion-powered Macan in Europe.
Fiat could have updated the elderly 500 to meet the new regs at huge expense, but instead its opted to adapt the far more sophisticated 500e and build the two models at its Mirafirori plant in Turin Italy. The 500e is already produced at Mirafiori, but sluggish demand for the EV means the factory is severely underutilized, so this new plan also sorts Fiat’s capacity problem. The current ICE-powered 500 is built in Tcyhy, Poland.
“To increase the number of 500s on the road in Italy and to answer the Italian customers, we have decided to produce the new 500 Ibrida,” said Olivier Francois, FIAT CEO, who acknowledged that 90 percent of Mirafiori’s current output is exported.
“The new 500 Ibrida has an Italian name, will be developed and designed in Turin and proudly Made in Mirafiori. It is clear that Mirafiori plays a strategic role for the brand and that we are also continuing investing in Italy, the 500 and Mirafiori.”
Fiat hasn’t yet revealed any images of the Turin-built 500 Ibrida, but has revealed a special Italy-only edition of the EV named after the famous factory, the 500e Mirafiori (seen in these images). The convertible comes with a choice of 42 kWh or 23.8 kWh batteries, 360° drone view parking assistance system, a 320-watt JBL sound system and chrome accents.
