My fabulous fun time in the new Fiat 500e 

When I received a call from Co Cars to test drive their brand new Fiat 500 electric car, I jumped at the chance. I mean, who wouldn’t want to drive this sleek and stylish little number?  

 One Voice has been a member of Co Cars for almost a decade. As a city centre business, many of the team walk or cycle to work, take the train, or use the park and ride facility and therefore we do not have access to our own cars during the day. Hiring a Co Car by the hour suits us down to the ground, booking a car is insanely easy, it’s usually a case of launching the app, book and off we go.  

Do you remember the previous Fiat 500 Co Car? I certainly do as do most of the team, mainly due to if we needed to book a Co Car to attend a meeting or event, this is the one we all wanted – it was cool drive a Fiat 500 right? We thought so!  

I headed down to Marsh Barton on chilly Wednesday morning in December to pick up my new ride. This was its temporary home, but can now be hired from Hele Road in Exeter. I met Eduardo from the Co Cars team, who showed me around the new electric car – I for one, have never driven an electric car before and I was super excited and strangely a bit nervous. The Fiat 500e has all the existing qualities of its petrol counterpart, but this new beauty has zero emissions at tailpipe, cleaner lines, LED lighting and feels rather spacious in the driver and passenger area.  

After my introduction, it seemed simple enough, I pressed the ‘on’ button, depressed the break, pressed ‘on’ again and I was ready to go. The simplicity of the controls complemented the smooth ride of this city nipper. I headed off to a meeting just outside Topsham and can honestly say I was driving with a grin on my face the whole time and had that feeling that people were looking at me and wishing they too were driving one. Funnily enough, I parked up next to another Fiat 500 and the driver was very keen to find out what model was and what a Co Car is. I of course was delighted to tell them all about it. 

After my meeting I hopped back in the car and took the longer route back to Marsh Barton to give the car a bit of more of a run. How did it fair on the motorway? Pretty good actually, although the lane assist feature certainly took me by surprise. Indicating is must (I know it is any way, but oops, I didn’t on this occasion), this intelligent little car will pull you back into your lane if you haven’t indicated before moving to the next. 

Upon return, I parked up, ended my booking, plugged in, and went on my way. In short, I’m in love with the Fiat 500e. I just wish I’d had one in my stocking at Christmas – but hey, there’s always this year!  

In reality, I don’t think Santa’s budget will ever quite stretch to a new EV for Christmas. However, being such a brilliant and innovative organisation, Co Cars may just have an alternative for me. I live someway outside of Exeter and currently Co Cars are mainly located in cities and larger towns. But, always with an eye on inclusivity, the team are working hard on bringing electric cars to some of our smaller Devon towns. This means we could go from a two-car family down to one. I travel to Exeter for work around once or twice a week. Having a Co Car on my doorstep would mean that I could hire a car as and when I need it to travel to work or to do the weekly shop. As a business user, I automatically receive complementary first year residential membership – how good is that! With hire from just £5.50 per hour plus mileage*, this is the perfect option for me, and I can’t wait.  

*prices and information correct at time of publishing