Fiat has confirmed that it’ll launch a brand new hybrid 500 in 2026, securing a long-term future for its big-selling petrol-engined metropolis automotive.
The brand new 500 Ibrida will arrive by early 2026, Fiat mentioned in a press release, that means it can arrive 18 years after the present petrol 500.
Manufacturing will transfer from Tychy in Poland to the Mirafiori plant in Italy that at present builds the electrical Fiat 500e.
The five hundred Ibrida shall be powered by the identical Firefly 1.0-litre mild-hybrid three-cylinder petrol engine as the prevailing 500 and the associated Fiat Panda.
Nonetheless, it is anticipated to change from the present petrol 500’s platform, which dates again to the 2003 Panda, onto the 500e’s bespoke structure.
The transfer to retrofit an EV with an inside combustion powertrain is unprecedented within the European automotive trade.
A number of experiences in March instructed that the daring measure was borne out of two key challenges.
First was the necessity to up manufacturing charges at Mirafiori amid gradual gross sales of the 500e and its Abarth 500e scorching hatch sibling. Fiat diminished shifts on the plant in February and reserved the choice of fully pausing the plant if gross sales did not decide up.
Second was the problem of retaining the favored petrol 500 on sale, as the prevailing mannequin falls foul of latest cybersecurity requirements launched by the European Union.
Making it compliant with these would contain an costly rehomologation effort.
Seventeen years on from launch, the petrol 500 stays a lynchpin for Fiat. Of the 173,187 new 500s offered throughout Europe final 12 months (together with Abarth fashions), 108,943 have been petrol-engined.
The transfer to develop the five hundred Ibrida additionally paves the way in which for a second technology of the Abarth 595 scorching hatch, though Fiat’s performance-focused sibling model has but to verify any such plans.
