ABARTH 600E SCORPIONISSIMA

Does heated-up electric crossover feel aloof or alive?

- RICHARD LANE

What few attempts have been made to reimagine the classic hot hatch format for the electric age have been tepid at best, but is that now beginning to change? Car makers do seem to be waking up to the fact that adding an extra motor to an otherwise sedate EV and stiffening the chassis doesn't automatically result in a rewarding B-road reprobate. They've clocked the fact that nobody is rushing to swap their Hyundai i20 N for a Volkswagen ID 3 GTX.

There's something reassuring about the French having led the charge in the rehabilitation of a format that Brits have always loved.

They're time-honoured leaders in the field, and the new Alpine A290 does lift-off oversteer and costs a sensible-for-2025 amount, at around £33k. We like it. And the Italians are at it too, with Abarth's lairy take on the Fiat 600e.

The salient bits for the top-rung Scorpionissima version tested here are as follows: 278bhp, front-wheel drive, Torsen front differential, 225-section Michelin tyres.

In terms of power-to-weight ratio, contact patch and hardware, the car is spookily similar to the Ford Focus RS and not the hardcore Mk3 but the thoroughbred Mk1. Just 5bhp per tonne separates the two (in the Abarth's favour). And as for length? Only 4mm. You can't therefore argue that the 600e doesn't present, at least on paper, as a hot hatch in the traditional mould.