While Alpine is set to launch six totally bespoke models over the coming years, fellow performance brand Abarth will be sticking to what it knows best: making faster versions of existing Fiat models.
Abarth has 75 years of experience tuning Fiats, for use both on the road and in motorsport, particularly the 500 city car. However it won’t be working on a performance version of the newly announced mild-hybrid 500 Ibrida. Its latest creation is the Abarth 600e – a heavily modified and much more powerful version of the Fiat 600e.
Auto Express spoke to Abarth’s European boss, Gaetano Thorel, at the launch of its new 600e. And when asked about the possibility of a bespoke model or following a similar path to Alpine, he quickly responded: “No, because Abarth has never been a bespoke brand.”
“Karl Abarth [the company’s founder] never made an Abarth car from scratch. He always took a different car and transformed it into an Abarth. When you look at the history of Abarth, it's always been like that. So our job is to take a donor vehicle and make it an Abarth.”
He added, “When you develop a real Abarth, it takes at least a couple of years. Maybe two to three years. Why? Because if it's not to be a compromise, you need to redevelop many parts including the chassis, suspension, wheels – and it all takes time.”
The Grande Panda will be the first in a new family of models for Fiat, which by 2027 will also include a mid-size SUV and a fastback. When we asked Thorel if Abarth would shy away from those larger models, he responded, “Not necessarily. In South America we launched the Pulse and the Fastback, which are bigger cars, around 4.3 to 4.4 metres long.”
He continued, “For me, Abarth is always associated with the idea of taking a car, electric or ICE, and making it an Abarth by being very true to our DNA.”
However, Thorel revealed to us that Abarth would not be doing anything with the new Fiat 500 Ibrida. “The new 500 hybrid that will be built in Mirafiori [in Italy] next year, its engine is, I would say, a micro hybrid engine, so nothing spectacular.”
“To make it perform, there is no space to do it,” he said. “Again, it wouldn't be true to the Abarth DNA, so I couldn't do it. Technically, it's not possible.”
But while this decision means his Abarth engineers have nothing new to play with, Thorel is extremely proud of the company's decision to offer a hybrid engine in the latest Fiat 500
“First of all, because the new 500 is undoubtedly the best car that we have, and the one that the people love, having the hybrid version will expand the possibility for the customer to enjoy the new ‘Cinquecento’. And the second element is that the new Cinquecento hybrid is back home in Italy.”