The Fiat 500e is cute, charming, and fairly refined for a small city car. Unfortunately, the 500e’s 149-mile range, lack of equipment, and base price of at least $32,000 make the 500e a terribly uncompetitive deal on paper. Still, there was some hope that Stellantis could use some clever accounting tricks (and possibly the $7,500 commercial lease tax credit) to make the 500e more palatable on some level. After all, the 500e isn’t bad, if the price was right it could find a surprising amount of happy and willing owners.

Unfortunately, the price is still wrong. Fiat’s lease pricing for the 500e is out, and the deal is not so good. At a monthly payment of $414 per month, the 500e costs more per month than bigger EVs that are much faster and go way further. Most notably, it’s more expensive than the revised Tesla Model 3.

Fiat’s lease deal is a 36-month lease with 10,000 miles per year. To get the $414 payment, Fiat requires 10% down, which translates to $3,409. The $7,500 tax credit, which Stellantis calls the “Stellantis Financial Services EV Incentive,” is factored into the lease. Yet none of those can seem to take the sting off the 500e’s high monthly payment. Remember, this is before any fees or taxes, which some may choose to wrap into the lease payment. Yikes.

By comparison, the EV lease market has started to become competitive again. Polestar is advertising a $299 for a 27-month lease, with $3,299 due at signing for the Polestar 2 hatchback. A base RWD Tesla Model 3 can be had for $299 a month with $2,999 down. The Hyundai Ioniq 6 could be had for as low as $189 a month and potentially $0 down, depending on your location and the trim level in stock. These vehicles can nearly double the Fiat 500e’s driving range while matching or bettering it on equipment and refinement. They’re faster, bigger, and, in some instances, cheaper.

Once again, it’s not that the Fiat 500e is necessarily a bad vehicle. On the contrary, it’s cute and pleasant, but that only gets a person so far. Its small size means that longer journeys for than two people aren’t all that practical or comfortable. Its 118-horsepower motor feels swift, but no doubt it isn’t the powerhouse you’d get from a Polestar or Tesla of the same price. Also, creature comforts like heated seats or a nicer sound system are only on the Inspired by Music and Inspired by Beauty trims, advertised at $487 and $493 per month, respectively. You can’t even pick a color for those trims, either. 

Fiat USA’s lead, Aamir Ahmed, was adamant that the cheap Fiat 500e lease era would never return. Sure, that’s fair – the era of cheap credit and free money isn’t likely to ever come back, and Fiat doesn’t want to lose its shirt on every purchase this time around. But surely there’s a middle ground here, right? As it stands, there are no reasons to buy a Fiat 500e. Neither purchase nor leasing makes any sense for a car with so little utility. Surely Fiat could sweeten the pot at least a little bit, no?

Let’s hope Fiat figures this out sooner rather than later. Right now, I can’t see Fiat’s US renaissance lasting all that long.

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