In a small but telling milestone, the all-electric Fiat 600e is now cheaper to buy than the mild-hybrid petrol version of the same car — once the Government’s Electric Car Grant is factored in.
Fiat has confirmed the 600e qualifies for the £1,500 Band 2 Electric Car Grant, taking its starting price down to £25,495 on the road. Its sportier sibling, the Abarth 600e, also qualifies and now starts from £32,495.
The £1,500 Government grant comes on top of an earlier Fiat price repositioning at the start of 2026. Combined, the savings total £4,785 compared with December 2025 pricing.
That’s the headline number, but the bit that genuinely catches the eye is the like-for-like comparison: the electric 600e is now cheaper than the petrol-powered 600 mild-hybrid. For years, the standard line in the trade has been that EVs cost more upfront but save you money on running costs. With cars like the Fiat 600e — and the Ford Puma Gen-E and Vauxhall Frontera Electric, both eligible for the bigger £3,750 Band 1 grant — that gap is now closing. In some cases, it’s flipped entirely.
Kris Cholmondeley, managing director of FIAT UK, said: “This is another important step from FIAT in making electric mobility even more accessible to a wider audience. With the Fiat 600e now benefiting from both our recent price repositioning and the Government’s Electric Car Grant, customers can enjoy a compelling price point and great value, with no compromise to stylish, practical electric driving.”
On paper, the 600e Pop entry model brings a 10.25-inch touchscreen, rear parking sensors and a heat pump as standard, with up to 254 miles of WLTP range on a single charge. The Abarth 600e gets an aggressive body kit, sharpened chassis tuning and power outputs ranging from 154bhp up to 276bhp in the top-spec Scorpionissima.
For taxi and private hire drivers, the 600e probably won’t be top of the list for big airport jobs — its boot is on the smaller side. But for city work, urban PHV jobs, school runs and shorter fares, a 254-mile range, 100kW DC charging and a sub-£26k price tag is hard to ignore.
The wider trend matters too. The Electric Car Grant, which launched in July 2025 with a budget of £650 million running through to 2028/29, has already pulled in dozens of models. The list now includes Citroen’s full ë-range, the Peugeot E-208 and E-2008, several Vauxhalls (Corsa Electric, Frontera Electric, Mokka Electric, Grandland Electric), Volkswagen’s ID.3, ID.4 and ID.5, plus the Renault 5 and Renault 4 — both at the full £3,750 Band 1 level.
When more EVs are cheaper than their petrol equivalents on day one, the maths starts to look very different for drivers shopping for their next vehicle.
The 600e isn’t the cheapest EV out there, and it isn’t the longest-range one either. But it’s now another model that’s genuinely competitive on price — and at the small SUV end of the market, that competition is exactly what UK buyers needed.
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