MODEL ON TEST: SCORPIONISSIMA – MILEAGE – 7,422

At this year’s London Concours, Boreham Motorworks unveiled their Mk1 Escort RS, a car that isn’t a restomod because it’s all brand new with a continuation Ford chassis number, and one of its most striking features is its LED headlights, which are split into four arcs.The reasoning for this, they told me, is that it evokes the style of a period race car that’s had its headlights taped over. And it’s only just occurred to me that this is precisely what the Abarth 600e is trying to achieve with the various lights across its frontage. It’s harking back to the old-school Abarth rally cars of yore. How cool is that?

Coolness is very much the theme with the 600e, from its ‘Mind the scorpion’ decals to its comically in-your-face colour, and it’s a car that provides oodles of fun on every trip. But now, after living with it for seven months, it’s time to wave a tearful farewell.

Its plus points are many; as well as being hysterically powerful, the standard specification includes a limited slip differential,Alcon brakes,Sabelt bucket seats, and the amusingly silly noise generator that sounds like a gargly exhaust – this isn’t on by default, you have to go into a menu and activate
it, but that’s something I did on every journey, because it’s a mischievous car and it perfectly suits its character to be making mischievous noises.

Reliability issues? Nope, there wasn’t anything to worry about there.The only real problem I had was when I got a nail in one of the tyres and it proved impossible to source an OEM- specification Michelin to replace it, so the ultimate solution (after a couple of weeks) was to replace both rears with Continentals.
And as for quality issues? Also very decent.The strip of trim at the base of the window on the rear passenger door fell off once (it clipped back on easily enough) and there was a faintly irritating rattle from the passenger-side door card, but I just turned up the audio system and ignored it. Besides that, and a slightly laggy touchscreen, I really have no complaints when it comes to quality and integrity. Frankly, the thing felt solid as a rock.

Now, the real point of me having an EV as a long-termer in the first place was that the Editor was keen to get the perspective of someone who’d never lived with an EV, couldn’t charge it at home and had to rely on the public charging network. This was a reasonably steep learning curve for me, but I quickly got to know which chargers were likely to be reliable and/or available, the relative costs, and how much time
it took. If you can charge while doing something else, that’s the ideal scenario, because going out specifically just to charge is dead time and that’s annoying. After my extensive research into this, I deduced that the best way to fit this into my life was to charge at Lidl while doing a bit of shopping. At my local Lidl branch in Chessington, the fast charger is almost always available, always works perfectly, and you get a cheaper rate with your Lidl Plus card. Best charger experience overall? The Ionity ones at Beaconsfield services on the M40 – you just plug in, scan the QR code and use Apple Pay, it takes seconds. Why can’t all chargers be that easy?

Worst chargers? EVCharge. Online are particularly hateful, and I stopped even bothering to try the Mer units in Epsom town centre because they so frequently fail for no obvious reason. Shell are generally good, I’ve found, and BP aren’t bad. (The BP Pulse chargers at Goodwood Motor Circuit are great, although I appreciate that’s a fairly niche bit of advice.)

The crux of the matter: is it worth living with an EV if you can’t charge it at home? Realistically, I’d say… no. I really wanted the answer to be yes, and once I’d got into a rhythm and found decent regular charging spots it all became relatively simple, but you can’t escape the fact that it’s not really any cheaper to publicly charge an EV than it is to fuel up a petrol or diesel car, which obviously also takes a fraction of the time – and the nature of cars is that they go places, so you’re not always near home within easy reach of chargers you can rely on. Sometimes you’re out and about on road trips and having to deal with the hassle of the patchy network. It’s a uniquely tense type of stress to find yourself rolling into the motorway services with only a tiny percentage of battery left, only to find that you’re unable to charge for reasons that cannot be explained – the machine is misbehaving or the app is frozen or the car just won’t recognise the charger.

Crucially, of course, none of this is the Abarth’s fault. And I’ll miss this car, genuinely. It’s not perfect, but what is? Indeed, what is life without charming character flaws and entertaining anecdotes, foibles and mishaps and tales of derring-do? This car has a lot of heart, a lot of soul, it always sparked conversations with fellow enthusiasts, and it’s been a real pleasure to live with. Plus it’s quick as hell. I’d very much recommend giving one a try.
DANIEL BEVIS

WHAT’S HOT: Oodles of fun on every single journey.

WHAT’S NOT: UK charging network has some way to go.

CLICK HERE TO READ ALL OF OUR LONG-TERM REPORTS ON THE ABARTH 600E

FACTS & FIGURES

PRICE (NEW): £39,885

PRICE (NOW): No longer sold £37,995 (Competitizone)

PRICE (AS TESTED): £39,885

PRICE (DEALER TRADE-IN): £23,400

PRICE (DEALER FORECOURT): £25,100

COLOUR: Acid green

BUILT IN: Tychy Poland

CODENAME: F364

GENERATION: 1

PLATFORM: eCMP

BODYSTYLE: 5-door hatchback, 5-seats

LAYOUT: Front-wheel drive

POWERPLANT: Electric motor with 54kWh lithium-ion battery pack

GEARBOX: 1-speed automatic

MAX POWER: 207kW/278bhp/281ps

MAX TORQUE: 254lb ft/345Nm

TOP SPEED: 124mph

0-62MPH: 5.9secs

CO2 EMISSIONS: 0g/km

ECONOMY (COMBINED): 3.4 miles/kWh

ECONOMY (ON TEST): 3.1 miles/kWh

RECHARGING:
AC 3.7kW (0-100%) 16 hours 10 minutes
AC 11kW (0-100%) 5 hours 45 minutes
DC 85kW (0-80%) 27 minutes

RANGE: 199 miles

INSURANCE GROUP: 36

BIK RATE: (2026/2027 TAX YEAR) 4%

SIZE: (LENGTH/WIDTH WITH MIRRORS/HEIGHT/ WHEELBASE) 4,187/1,981/1,557/2,559mm

BOOT SPACE: (MIN/MAX) 360/1,231 litres

KERB WEIGHT: 1,640kg

TOWING WEIGHT: 0kg

EURO NCAP RATING: Not yet tested

SPARE WHEEL: (FULL-SIZE/SPACESAVER/RUN-FLAT/ SELF-SEALING/REPAIR KIT) No/no/no/no/yes

WARRANTY: 3 years/Unlimited miles

DATE ARRIVED: 11th December 2025

COSTS: £451 (2x new tyres due to puncture)

FAULTS: None