2014 Fiat 500e First Photos: Los Angeles Auto Show Preview

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2014 Fiat 500e First Photos: Los Angeles Auto Show Preview

Antony Ingram

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2013 Fiat 500e

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Fiat has released the first few images of its 500e, the electric version of the 500 city car.

The vivid orange machine is set to debut at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show, which starts later this month.

The car will ditch the regular 500's 1.4-liter gasoline engine for a battery-electric drivetrain.

Doing so hasn't been an easy move for Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, who says that the company will lose $10,000 on each car it produces.

Like the 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV we tested recently, and the Honda Fit EV, it's being built only as a 'compliance car', to meet California's regulations on electric vehicles. As a result, we'll see only limited numbers of the silent Fiat.

Still, at least it looks good.

The orange 500e in the images wears a deep body kit and front bumper as found on the sporty Abarth models, albeit using smaller wheels and taller tires--no doubt optimized for efficiency.

2014 Fiat 500E

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The front chin spoiler is white, which matches the interior trim. A four-button drive selector sits in the space normally occupied by a manual gear shifter, and the traditional speedometer appears to have been replaced by an electronic display.

Beyond the expected 75-kilowatt (100-horsepower) electric motor, we don't know many other details about the 500e--but we'll bring you more as soon as the car is unveiled in L.A.

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Comments (6)

Gregg Nicholas Posted: 11/16/2012 7:21am PST

These 'compliance' cars are as annoying as the 'concept' cars. The statistics about the vehicle look great - but we'll never be able to buy the car in the midwest - so we're just wasting our time when we read about them.

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CDspeed . Posted: 11/16/2012 1:22pm PST

I agree, I live in the south east and I know I'll probably never see one. I hate it when we're shown interesting cars that either stay concepts or are only built for limited markets.

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David Heywood-Jones Posted: 11/16/2012 9:01am PST

Looking at the interior, I think they have styled the car so that nobody will want to own one!

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Xiaolong Li Posted: 11/16/2012 11:50am PST

Isn't this a "head to head" size and performance competition vs the Spark EV?

I am betting that Spark EV will win the performance battle.

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Al Bunzel Posted: 11/18/2012 3:47am PST

"will lose $10,000 on each car it produces" - I thought they [Chrysler] also lost money when they produced gas cars.

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robok2 Posted: 11/20/2012 10:39am PST

Yeah, that's why they're the most profitabe they've been in years and have hired thousands this year, including announcing over 1,000 new hires in the last week alone.

How have you somehow managed to miss month after month of good sales results, profits, etc...? I'll help you out here, Al, it's 2012 and there's this thing called Google. I'll help you out even more; 3Q12 profits increased 80% from 3Q11. Facts are nice, Al.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2012/10/29/chrysler-earnings-increase/1666489/

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