1 day Ago By David Booth
Article content The best thing about Fiat’s new Giorgio Armani Collector’s Edition of its 500e is that it wears its pretentiousness on its sleeve. Actually, make that its wheels, which, in official Fiat-speak, “display the GA logo on a grand scale.” The spinning 17-inch “GA” rims truly are, by quite some margin, the biggest logos ever to adorn an automobile, a distinction made all the more dramatic because the 500e is, of course, so tiny.
As eye-catching adornments go, those Giorgio Armani wheels are right up there with the old Plymouth Superbird’s giant rear wing, or the split rear window of a ’63 Corvette. They may not prove as timeless, but you certainly won’t miss them. That’s probably a good thing since the GA’s mechanicals are pretty much standard 500e.
The battery still offers 42 kilowatt-hours of lithium-ion rated by Natural Resources Canada for 227 kilometres; in our more rigorous testing, it managed a still creditable 196 klicks. The maximum DC fast-charging speed, meanwhile, remains at 85 kW, minuscule compared with the 300-plus kW boasted by some bigger EVs, but not all that much of a handicap since the battery is so small. Its single electric motor offers the same sort of satisfaction-through-minimalization.
It still puts out the same seemingly inadequate but surprisingly spunky 117 horsepower and 162 pound-feet of torque, figures offset by the 500e’s light-for-an-EV 1,342-kilogram (2,958-lb) curb weight. The inside, meanwhile, is no less shy about its affiliation with the house of Armani. Starting up the infotainment system, for instance, illuminates Giorgio’s stylish signature.
The dashboard is likewise adorned with his personal scripture. And the headrests, of course, get “upgraded” with a massive GA logo only slightly smaller than the ones on the wheels. One isn’t going to miss the affiliation.
More appreciated might be the new laser-cut dashboard applique. It may offer faux wood grain, but it is a very well-rendered fake that truly does beautify the 500e’s cabin. Hopefully, after it’s sold all the GA models promised, Fiat will apply this feature to the standard trims.
There’s also a seven-speaker JBL sound system that creates what Fiat calls “Virtual Venues” inside the cabin. The first is called My Music Room, and is claimed to be “an intimate musical experience, as if the artist was playing right in front of you.” My Recording Studio, meanwhile, offers the “pure acoustics and beautiful tones of a real recording space”; while Giuseppe Verdi Opera House, Pisa creates “a theatre setting, enjoying a live performance.
” (How that differs from the Open-air Arena mode and its “unmistakable acoustics,” boasting the “energy of an open-air arena,” I don’t know, and that will probably be the biggest mystery to be solved if I ever get the chance to test Giorgio Armani’s take on fossil-free motoring. At the very least it will give me something to focus my evaluation on.) There’s no word on pricing yet, though one assumes that, based on the prices Armani suits command, this Collector’s Edition will be at least moderately more expensive than the $39,995 an unadorned 500e retails for.
Whatever the case, there’s no way you’ll be able to mistake it for an ordinary run-of-the-mill Fiat: there’s about 17 inches of wheel making sure you know Mr. Armani is loud and proud to be “tailoring” an electric vehicle..
