Junkyard Find: 2013 Fiat 500e

It took until 2022 for me to find a Nissan Leaf in a self-service car graveyard, and since that time discarded Leaves have become commonplace in such places (at least in California). I knew the Fiat 500e wouldn't be far behind, and I was right. This first-year 500e now resides in a Denver self-service junkyard.

The current era of mass-produced EVs that you might actually see in traffic (that is, not the Tesla Roadster) began with the Leaf, which hit American roads as a 2010 model. The Mitsubishi i-MiEV joined it a year later, followed by the Tesla Model S and Fiat 500e for 2013.

The 500e first went on sale in the United States in July 2013. This car was built at the Toluca plant in June 2013, so it's one of the very first examples to be built.

I've documented a few EVs from the lead-acid battery era of the late 20th century, beginning with this electrified Geo Metro I spotted back in 2013 at the very same Denver junkyard that has today's Junkyard Find subject.

This group of EV conversions included a 1988 Ford Ranger in California and a 1988 Chevrolet Sprint in Colorado, both photographed in 2014.

Later in the decade, the ZENN Electric (based on the French Microcar MC-2) LSV began appearing in California boneyards. This car had a 30-horse motor and lead-acid batteries.

I knew I'd never find a GM EV1 at a Ewe Pullet-type yard, but Toyota sold an EV1 competitor around the turn of the century: the original RAV4 EV (no, not the later one). This car had a NiMH battery pack, a 95-mile range, and it could drive at highway speed. I found one in a California Pick-n-Pull three years ago, a feat that still fills me with pride.

I wasn't optimistic about finding a junked Tesla Model S, because even wrecked ones are worth good money for parts, but this one showed up in Colorado a year ago.

I figured either the i-MiEV or the 500e would be next up in my junkyard travels, and I was right.

I did a Race Organizer Review of the 500e in 2015 and I liked the car at the time.

The range-O-meter bounced around in stress-inducing fashion, but otherwise the 500e proved to be a fine machine for driving in San Francisco.

I assumed that the white-and-orange interior would look pretty icky after a decade or so of ordinary use, and now we can see if I was right.

The front seats in the junkyard car got trashed in a hurry and now wear seat covers, but the rest of the interior isn't nearly as ruined as I expected.

I don't know how many miles were on it at the end, but probably many fewer than on, say, your typical 2013 Nissan Altima.

The car appears to have been a trade-in at a local Chrysler dealer, and U-Pull-&-Pay must have been the highest bidder at the subsequent auction. My guess is that the battery pack was bad.

The motor output was 111 horsepower and 147 pound-feet of torque. This would be fun in something like a Triumph Spitfire or first-generation Honda Civic (either would need a serious axle shaft upgrade to survive that torque, of course). It's unclear what U-Pull-&-Pay charges for an EV motor.

The nice thing about the 500e is that you can swap interior and body parts with the dime-a-dozen-in-junkyards gasoline-burner 500. I'd want to swap in a Gucci Edition interior.