Fiat Topolino: A Tiny Electric Car for $14,000 USD
Fiat is beginning to sell its Topolino in the United States, a 2.4-meter-long electric microcar that has a top speed of 40 km/h and costs just $13,995 (C$20,000).
The Italian name means “little mouse.” Barely longer than an older Smart car, it’s banned from the highway and is aimed at gated communities and coastal towns.
It weighs a little over 450 kilos. No air conditioning. Doors are optional. It has a range of 74 kilometers before needing to be recharged: “We don’t make big cars, we don’t make expensive cars, we don’t make luxury cars. We make small cars,” says Olivier François, CEO of Fiat, in the Wall Street Journal.
Fiat has identified a niche that, according to the company, no one saw coming: owners of golf carts who want to drive legally in the city.
These vehicles are not subject to the safety standards that apply to traditional cars. Airbags are not required. Crash tests are not required. Just lights, seat belts, and side mirrors.
And it works
Josh Towbin, a Fiat dealer in Nevada, brought the Topolino to a car show in Summerlin, alongside Ferraris and Lamborghinis. A crowd gathered: “What car under $20,000 draws such a crowd?” Towbin asked the Wall Street Journal. He already has deposits from customers for nearly every Topolino on its way to his dealership.
Other manufacturers are catching on. Slate Auto is developing a small electric truck priced at $25,000. Ford will soon launch its own compact electric pickup truck priced around $30,000.
Motor Trend calls the Topolino “perfect for beaches and narrow streets.” Car and Driver is more blunt: it looks like “a Birkin bag among golf carts.”
Forget about her!
The Topolino will not be coming to Canada, where current regulations prohibit these vehicles from being driven on public roads.
In Quebec, Fiat is focusing instead on its 500e, a compact electric car priced at $43,000 or $30,000 after government rebates.
