What finer way to mark the 125th anniversary of Fiat last year than with a partnership between the Turin automotive powerhouse and the master of Milan fashion, Giorgio Armani? The dinky little Fiat 500, a piece of pocket-sized perfection, forms the centrepiece of the collaboration, with an understated, smart, limited edition of the (now electric) 500, the 500e Giorgio Armani Collector’s Edition. This slice of eternal city chic can be yours in one of two bespoke colours – Dark Green or Ceramic Greige. The first colour is a metallic green-grey which looks sublime on city streets, among the gunmetal skyscrapers and marble statues of financial districts, while the latter is a light Champagne hue that reflects the sunlight and is very pretty indeed.
So what else do you get for the extra £10,000 or so that this special edition will cost you? There is the “GA” logo embossed on the dark green leather seats inside and the wheels outside, Armani’s trademark signature scrawled across the dashboard and the rear window, and you get a welcome letter upon delivery signed by the late Italian designer. And that’s about it. Some may feel a bit short-changed, but actually this special-edition 500e is all the smarter and more special for the subtlety of the branding: if you know, you know. The quiet, old-school glamour of the styling fits so well with the understated power of cities like Milan and London.
The Fiat 500e is still a great electric car in its own right. Hardcore motoring journalists argue that it’s in need of an update, given that new small electric cars are being launched all the time with more range and better tech. But nothing matches the Fiat 500e for sheer verve and spirit: it’s still one of the smallest electric cars you can buy, making it a breeze for parking in town centres, nipping round country lanes and squeezing past vehicles on narrow roads. We did a two-point turn on our small driveway after charging it overnight to get out, which any other car would be totally incapable of. Of course, a small car means a small battery, which means a small range, but if your driving is mostly local and town based in the week, then you’ll be fine: we got 160 miles out of our 500e which easily lasted us three days of long school runs and work journeys. The upsides to a small battery are that the car is quicker to charge (we got a whole charge out of one five-hour, off-peak period overnight, which is impossible in any other car), and better for the environment, because it’s lighter so uses less energy and doesn’t wear out tyres so quickly.
Given the urban chic of the 500e, we spent the entire weekend with it in central London. What an easy-breezy joy that was. We stayed at NoMad, opposite the Royal Opera House on Bow Street, and charged for an hour in a nearby public carpark while we had coffee in NoMad’s beautiful Library, all red velvet and backlit bookshelves, browsing the books and people watching. Then we simply hopped in the car and zipped silently through the dark winter streets to Mayfair, and a dinner reservation at Angela Hartnett’s Cafe Murano in St James’s. I wouldn’t dream of driving from Covent Garden to Mayfair in anything else, but the 500e imbues you with supreme confidence about parking and, given it’s electric, you’re not adding to city air pollution, so that was that. Sure enough, we found the perfect spot nearby, and had a sublime Italian dinner of burrata, pasta, risotto and tiramisu to make the most of our newfound dolce vita lifestyle. Then it was a short hop back to NoMad, the Fiat’s little headlights bouncing merrily off the wet streets, CarPlay tunes blaring out of the surprisingly good JBL speakers.
The next morning, the rain continued to pour from the heavy sky overhead, running down the gutters, puddles everywhere. All the umbrellas had disappeared from the hotel lobby, so we shrugged and did another insanely short hop in the Fiat, from Bow Street to the Covent Garden Hotel on Monmouth Street, where we were due for a family private screening of – what else? – The Italian Job. It was sheer coincidence that the screening was booked on our weekend with the Fiat, but sometimes when the stars align, you just have to nod and accept. The drive over was under a mile, but I was starting to get used to the ridiculous ease of the tiny 500e – it actually felt like less effort to drive the car than it would have been to find an umbrella and change shoes.
We slipped into yet another parking space nearby, and joined friends and family in the hotel’s private screening room with sweets, popcorn and Champagne for a morning of Michael Caine blowing the bloody doors off, ensconced in the red leather seats. Sometimes, la dolce vita is made sweeter still by a nostalgic blast of British comedy.
The car: Fiat 500e Giorgio Armani Collector’s Edition
- Price: £34,035
- Engine: battery
- Features: Giorgio Armani signature on the dash and logo on the wheels and headrest, unique Dark Green paint, leather seats, large sunroof, JBL audio system.
- Configure yours here.