I leased a Fiat 500e and got a fairly good deal; 2 yrs, $1000 down, $234./Mo. I've had it only a week and I need to return this ill conceived vehicle.
I am pretty bummed. Here's the problem with this vehicle. The battery ONLY holds an 80 mile charge. At first that seemed like it was a non issue, but there's a catch. Unless you have a home charger (or a commercial BLINK charger next door) you will spend much of your driving experience seeking out charging stations and hours of recharging time.
Charging up an 80 mile charge means you really cannot go below 15 miles of battery life. If you live in an apartment or condo you are screwed. Without gas back up, a larger capacity battery (like Tesla's 300 mile battery), or a switch out battery (not invented yet) you will need to get to the closest charging station when you arrive at your destination. Unfortunately the infrastructure is not there yet. I live in L A where we live in our cars. There are 2 charging stations 'near' my apartment (3 blocks). Other stations are sparsely spread out around the metro area; 3-4 sites in West Hollywood, 3-4 in Santa Monica, you get the picture. The paucity of power stations makes it nearly impossible to travel anywhere in a day and still have time to charge for 2-4 hrs for the next day....unless you have your own 240v charging station to charge overnight at home. There is a 110v cord but that takes 24 hours and the same problem for apartments...no outlets in garages.
BLINK suggests a solution to this dilemma; use the DCFC (DC Fast Charger) that gives a full charge in only 30 min (instead of 4 hrs). There are no DCFC stations available in Los Angeles yet.
Also, the sun roof is flawed - they forgot to put in a sun shield. It only has a sun screen filter and the tint on the glass sun roof is not dark enough to keep out the glare. I have to wear sunglasses and a hat. This also heats up the interior and that means more AC, more drain on the battery. Back to a charging station.
Well, that should have all been more than obvious before you leased the car. Also, cars have to be designed to handle the DC fast charge, and I'm pretty sure the 500e is not. There was some rumor that capability might be in future models, or possibly retrofittable to the current one.
If you were hoping to live off of public power, that was an error. Public chargers are often occupied or out of service. Buying an EV without a 240 home station is really embarking on an adventure. Plugshare.com might help you find a home in your neighborhood that is willing to share. Good luck!
You didn't know this when you got the car? It's not a flaw, and it's not ill-conceived. It's very well conceived for certain uses. And I'm getting more than 85 miles on every charge, using a lot of highway and hills. I'm sure I could get over 90 in certain driving. Of course, if you want to drive it 80 miles every day you will need a home charger or charge someplace out. That's obvious.
You should have done your homework! I drove all day today, over 80 miles and got home with 25% left. I do not yet own a 240 charger. By tomorrow 8am it will be about 80% charged More then enough for the saturdays errands. Beverly Hills has DOZENS of FREE 240 stations. As well Santa Monica. You need to study both the Charge point and Blink maps. There are stations all over the west side. As for then sunroof. Spend $5.00 and buy a piece of dark tint screen film at PEP Boys and apply it yourself if you don't want to go to a professional. And stop whining!
You have a lot of audacity to blame Fiat for making a perfectly good car that simply doesn't suit you, due to your poor assessment of your needs. Grow up.
Amen. And there is another post here where someone is getting fantastic mileage. After a month of driving love the car love the mileage per ccharge I'm getting and I've figured out I don't need the expense of a 240 charger at home. I schedule my life partially around whe I can get free juice when i psrk it It's fun!
I have read on other forums of folks who carry around the 240 v charger with them and plugin to a 240 outlet (dryer or similar).. You have to be very careful though with all things electrical.. Anyway, the recommended one is by Clipper Creek, LCS 25 or something like that, $495 on sale right now, max amps is 20, so it won't overload a circuit.... So a full charge may take 5 hrs instead of the 3 hrs on a higher amp home charger. Does your apt have an available 240 v? The charger is normally hard wired install but you can use it without hard wire. I hope I am explaining this ok, this electrical stuff is confusing to me too.. I read about this on I think the myfocuselectric.com forum, or maybe it was Chevy spark EV. Google the portable L2 charger thread. Good luck. It sounds like a nice little car, you are lucky to have gotten it at the advertised price, and luckier still to snag one of the 491.. No more being produced until next year.. Who knows. These may become collector's items! Anyway, maybe the electrically smart members on this forum can chime in on the safety of such setup.
The LCS-25 is a good charger. There is also a company that will upgrade your 110 VAC charger to 240/110 autoswitching with a collection of plugs so you can plug in anywhere you can find electricity!
But one does have to keep in mind that juicing up isn't the same for electrics and gas cars. I guess one can think of the hassles of thinking about charging locations is what we get stuck with for never having to buy gas! There is no free lunch!
Dr O. Does that company modify the 500e charger? Can you name them? I've heard of that for Other EVs. In the mean time I put a J1772 plug on a Tesla UMC so it charges both my 500e and my wife's Model S.
Daninmarina, unless you can charge at home or your office most days you are going to spend your life stressed while looking for charging places and it is not the car for you. I can easily charge every second day, sometimes on the 3rd but I have a charger in my garage so wake up with 'a full tank' every morning. I commend you for your cool green car desire but agree with the above that you should have thought this through a bit better.
I can't believe I'm reading this.
As I am apparently the only one who actually BOUGHT the car vs. leasing, I immediately installed a level 2 charger. I got the GE one. I have not had to run below 65% battery and charging takes 2 hours from there.
I gladly would have paid another $10,000 for the car.
And yes, even if I could only get 80 miles per charge it would be fantastic.
I'm working on getting solar panels too....if my HOA is ok with that.
So, sorry if this is offensive, but I'm sick of the haters.
daninmarina, I feel your pain! It reminds me of my first car -- I bought it, paid thousands and thousands of dollars for it, and it quit moving after about 350 miles. I called the dealer and -- get this -- they said I had to put more gasoline in it! I know, right?!! You pay all that money for something, use it for less than a week, and then you have to pay more money?!! WTF, man. Not only that, but I had to put more gasoline in it EVERY WEEK OR SO. What a ripoff!
Seriously, though, if you leased a 500e without doing even basic research, you are the living personification of the old saying, "he's got more money than sense." (More likely, though, you're just some guy with an axe to grind hoping this topic will make the first page in Google's search results and knock off one of the dozens of glowing reviews for the 500e, which pretty much everyone agrees is a pretty darn impressive EV.)
daninmarina, I feel your pain! It reminds me of my first car -- I bought it, paid thousands and thousands of dollars for it, and it quit moving after about 350 miles. I called the dealer and -- get this -- they said I had to put more gasoline in it! I know, right?!! You pay all that money for something, use it for less than a week, and then you have to pay more money?!! WTF, man. Not only that, but I had to put more gasoline in it EVERY WEEK OR SO. What a ripoff!
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Now THAT was funny! Dana, first you said the car was flawed, then say the car is OK, it's the lack of charging stations. Then you say the Blink charging stations don't work (have you read your owners manual?) Then you say you highly recommend it, as long as you can CHARGE IT! Can we get a consistent response. please?
Thanks for the tip about Charge Point. I was only made aware of BLINK. The TomTom GPS wouldn't ID ANY charging stations with the icon for that. I guess I was naive accepting the sales pitch on EV convenience. Good to know about Beverly Hills and Santa Monica charging sites, but I don't live there. I wasn't aware that some charging stations can be problematic. I have left the car charging at 3 stations, the meter started, and when I got back 2 hrs later there was no added power charged. What's up with that? Battery issue or Charger issue?
Wow, you complaining about charging stations is like the woman with a big virginia ham complaining that she has no bread. At least you can get the car, we can even buy one on this side of the US.
Before you open the drivers door and exit the info center on the dash asks if you want to "charge now". Hit it twice. It should now saying "plug in to charge". Then you plug it in. First you get cycling LEDs on the dash which then turn to full LEDs indicating % of charge. EG. Each bank is about % 20 of change. The last blinking LED is the one currently chatging
Stop whining about charging stations on the west side that do not exist. I live in Marina del Rey (not Santa Monica/Bev Hills) and there are only 2 public charging sites in a 3.5 mile radius; Ralph's (2; 24 hrs) and Bartell's Motorcycles (2; 8am-6:30pm). Does anyone really care about FREE stations anyway? The cost of charging is not an issue. It's the availability of electric power outlets to plug a charge cord into. If you are getting an 80% charge on your vehicle by the next morning you likely have a 120v home electric outlet. There are charger systems that will charge your battery in less than 1/3 the time. It just needs one thing...a 120v outlet. BTW, I love the Fiat 500e as a vehicle. It was the power source availability I was writing about. I added the extra tint on the glass sunroof today at an installer. I wish that was the most serious design flaw. If the turning wheels (instead of the brakes) on the vehicle generated electric power back to the battery while driving that would be a smart idea.
It would be fabulous, but then it would be a perpetual motion machine, which is impossible to achieve. Think about it, if you were to draw power out of the driven wheels, it would require MORE power to turn the driving wheels, hence less range. There is no free lunch. The name of the game for ALL future car designs (not just BEVs) is to capture wasted energy, of which braking is the biggest opportunity, followed by idling while at a stop. Guaranteed you will start to see ALL ICE cars start to utilize ways to get some of that energy back, by having automatic engine start/stop at lights, and then some sort of braking energy capture system. One that will be seen soon is use of a smart alternator that can act as an engine brake and also an acceleration booster. It is likely that all future ICE cars will be at least some form of mild hybrid.
500e is awesome but I think you missed the point. It's not about refilling the power. It's about the availability of places to refuel/re-power. I am guessing your first car had access to gas stations at every 2-3 miles. The post was about Charge Stations, Electric outlets. I love the car as a vehicle and I add to the glowing reviews about the car itself. What's not to like? You misconstrued the subject from 'power source access' to a critique about the vehicle. My home base of 3.5 sq. miles has only 2 public charging sites, and one is limited to 8am-6pm. Short of having a charge OUTLET to use wherever the destination is the EV driver can leave the car at any charge station 4 miles away and just take a cab or call UBER for transportation.
Yeah, I agree, but they would not be living in an apt or condo in an area with2 public charge stations. They would be well advised to have an electric outlet at their house to charge overnight.
I park in a condo garage and work is an office bldg. at the end of my block. No electric outlets at either site short of running an extension cord out the second story window. Also, most destinations that drivers go to MIGHT have public EV charge station within a 3-5 mile distance. Then it's a taxi or UBER while the car charges, hang out at Starbucks or call a friend for a lift or take a bus?. At best, the car would go 40 miles one way and 40 miles back to home base. You then need an immediate charging outlet at that point and a min. of 4 hrs to re-charge the battery.
I had the PlugSHare App the 2nd day. There are still only 2 charge stations in a 3.5 sq mile area near home base. Unless you are traveling to a destination within 1-2 blocks of a charge station ...do the math. It's a great car. I rave about the vehicle. Awesome. It's the access to public (and available) charge locations at/near the destination where you want to be. The nearest site could be 14 blocks away. Taxi?