Wizard the 2013-2019 Fiat 500e never had a 42kWh battery, they were all only 23.8 kWh (but only get to use about 21kWh with BMS). I've owned 3 of them in the past, they're excellent EVs (All bosch internals), but you typically will get around 70 miles maximum in daily driving. I would highly recommend you do a battery re-learn so the computer can re-calculate/balance out, there are tutorials on how to do this on the forums. Also never trust the guess-o-meter for range, it's not reliable. Best way to calculate range = watch your energy to mile efficiency and do a full 100% to 0% test (no hard accelerating, keep it under 50mph). Good luck! :)
Yeah I owned one too and loved it. I never heard of an upgraded battery either. I sold mine tho because the factory new range was so low at 85 miles, and bought a Chevy Bolt which I really love too.
I’ve had two as well. Both times I leased them for $99mo. My teenagers drove them because 85 miles total travel distance and 85MPH were the max. Kids couldn’t run far or go too fast.
Yep, too much faith placed in the guessometer. It's behaving exactly as my fully functioning one does. A couple of codes from when 12V was dead. Nbd. Just drive this thing and enjoy your 80+ miles of range!
This is the most interesting car you'vepurchased since the Citroën. Looking forward to watching you repair and improve this EV. Hau'oli la hanau, Mrs. Wizard. Much aloha to you on your birthday!
You are correct, but 24kWh battery was the only size available from its introduction until it was pulled from the US market. It's rated at 84 miles though it's usual to get 100 miles around town. The 42kWh is for the second edition. That's a total redesign that looks similar but it's bigger/better. Some owners have found the battery can be "recovered". It's hard to tell how often that works but 2 people reported it worked for them. It's also wise to disconnect the humidity sensor on the 500e. Even working it can keep the AC turned on.
i have such a new 500e and i am enthusiatic. just to se its form makes me happy, it looks so wonderful with its color ocean green which is more a change betweeen dartk blue and dark grenn... fantastic!, we call the shape knuffig, which i thing needs no translation (sturdy) t has the bbyby scheme, which means its proportions lets you want to hug and protect ir.like puppets do
I bought a 2017 with 12500 miles for 7 grand 2 years ago. The max range it would ever get is around 85 miles. That being said it’s absolutely the best 7k I ever spent . 104000 miles now still going strong . No oil changes no smog check no repairs at all . I bought tires and a 12 v battery . Car is super quick off the line . Gas in California has ranged from 3-6 bucks a gallon over this time frame . Based on that the car was free about a year ago . I would never buy a gas powered fiat but the Bosch motor has been a great deal for me .
@@jd9119 And to think (as a teenager) I almost moved out there. Glad I stayed in Jersey, but 17 years ago I saw the writing on the wall and moved down to South Carolina.
90k miles = 5-6 oil changes any car that new shouldnt have check engine lights on ... even though you got it for nothing... you didnt really get that much free ... sucks that its at end of life and will need to be scrapped prior to 150k
The best way to learn something new is to get hands on with it. With EV technology I loved going to any trainings I could get during my career to better learn and understand what makes them work. People are afraid to work on them. I never was because I respected what that kind of electrical power can do to harm you. Just like air bags when they came out in the late 80’s. I saw it as a system that we would have moving forward and jumped in with both feet to learn how they work and how to properly diagnose and repair them without making them go boom 😂
if it truly has a 42kWh pack, it's not OE. 2014's are of the first gen 500e's. It's only the newer 2023/2024 model year ones, that are just now showing up in the states, that had the optional 42kWh pack. all the first gens were 24kWh and 88 miles range rated. they never had a range rating above 100, and definitely not near 200.
There's absolutely ZERO chance that it actually has a 42kWh battery pack in it being a $700 auction car. I cannot imagine the newer 42kWh packs would even fit in the old chassis.
@techismycologne Your right they won't. The new 500e is a different body being slightly larger overall. If I park up next to an old shape one it looks like my 500e has been overinflated. Been available in UK since 2021. 42kwh Normal mode says 161 and Range mode 199 but the Guess o meter is wrong. You can expect plus or minus 150m depending on how it's driven, ambient temp etc. The 500e mk2 is a fun ev but frankly it's a city car. Longer journeys I take my other EV.
Most hybrid battery repair / upgrade shops in Europe is ran by Latvians and Mongolians and I always find it so fascinating how they quickly adapted and became familiar with repairing stuff that most of the locals would nope out of it immediately.
@@Spookiehamthis. Other shops just nope out of it because they know the time it takes to reverse engineer and fix something that is usually cheaper just to replace.
You know I’m assuming Mongolians are good with EV tech and how to fix such problems due to the fact that Mongolians in Mongolia mainly drive Priuses lol like seriously go find a video of someone driving in Ulaanbaatar Mongolia, and it’s literally all Prius
Interesting how many comments are bad mouthing this car. Most people that have owned these love them. I have a 2013 with 16" tires and upgraded suspension - it absolutely rocks, handles like a go kart. It is my commuter car. Never had any problems. The battery has degraded about 15% but I'm OK with that. I'll keep it so long as I can do a 50 mile round trip since it is as close to free to own as it gets.
I had a 2015 and I loved it. Range in the winter was an issue with a resistive heater but otherwise it was an amazing little car. Bought it for 8 grand with 23k miles on it.
I noticed the paint on the front bumper doesn't match. Many people think that is a sure sign of body work. In reality, the facias are always supplied by an outside vendor, painted and assembled. On many colors, getting an accurate color match is virtually impossible. Black is the easiest color to match, white and metallic paint is the most difficult. Just thought I'd mention it.
@@usa-ev I didn't notice but probably so. The supplier that supplies the facias usually also supplies body side moldings and other plastic parts. White is tricky as it goes from a bluish tint to a slightly yellow one as the film thickness increases.
This would be a great vehicle for my wife. She works three miles away, maybe goes to an appointment a bit farther than that after work. Plus, we have solar and overproduce so could charge at home for free! I would have bought it with no hesitation.
@@crisnmaryfam7344 yeah, I agree. There was a Nissan Leaf for sale 100 miles away from me for $800. Unfortunately the battery was degraded to the point of only 30-35 miles range. It would have been tricky to get it home without a trailer! 😂
I have a 2014 500e with 85,000 miles and I mentioned this on Hoovies channel but in terms of reliability, performance, character it's such an awesome car. I bought mine 2 years ago for $8,000 with 47,000 miles and it hasn't given me any trouble yet. Super cheap to run both from an insurance standpoint and cost per mile it's one of the cheapest and most fun vehicles you might ever own. I think you definitely got a steal of a deal if you ask me because typically with the Bosch components and Samsung cells these batteries go for a long time. I'm still getting 80 plus range on mine so basically like new range. One correction which I'm sure you're aware of now is there was no 42kWh model only 24kWh for the older 500e so you probably have very little degradation and are fine with the pack. Overall, I'm sure you will be pleased with it. Most owners love theirs. I'm excited for new videos on it so keep them coming!
@@drunkenhobo8020 Let’s just say I love driving and doing road trips. And I love the car. Even though the car doesn’t have a lot of range and doesn’t even have fast charge I make it work trust me 😂. It’s the adventure for me. But someone has to push the car to its limit lol
@@Vivra_Verra____ Just I can't think of many people who would do that many miles in a regular Fiat 500! I checked out of curiosity on AutoTrader and there's a 2016 1.2 Fiat 500 for sale with 181,000 miles, and a 2021 Fiat 500e with 64,000 miles. So you're not even the craziest - there's people doing over 20,000 miles per year in these cars. And this is in the UK.
These FIAT cars are so good. I have no idea why nobody are baying these great cars in US. I drove three FIAT cars in Europe. I will not tell my worst enemy to get a FIAT.
I had a 500e. Here in SoCal it was perfect for commute. And with 15x8 wheels, koni shocks and eibach springs it was like a mad little go kart. Right up to the 88mph limiter.
This battery could work another 8 to 16 years as a shop UPS and battery power backup (a lot of people are doing this with Nissan LEAF - under Japanese law they have to plug straight into the house fuse box - hence the ease of doing it) but just taking this car apart for parts would be worth it as well - $700 is just a steal the parts are worth a lot more
A sailing couple used a battery from a Leaf to save money in their sailboat. Their remains were found in their dingy washed up on the beach a couple weeks after they went missing while crossing the Atlantic. I don’t know if the cause has officialy been determined, but I concluded that the battery cought fire forcing them to abandon ship so fast they couldn’t do it right. They didn’t use their liferaft, ditch bag, radio or satelite emergency signals…. My point is that those used parts May or may NOT be worth anything.
I'm not sure why everyone keeps saying $700. That was the auction price, plus $1000 to ship it, plus some tax I imagine, plus Wizard just said he paid $2000 for it. So the car is now $2000, not $700, and it needs work.
Congratulations on expanding into the EV space. Logic is the backbone of troubleshooting no matter what is wrong. I look forward to learning new things.
Those 500e's are great little runabouts. We rented one recently and it was a pretty good driver around the centre of Auckland, only showing its limits on broken gravelly roads where the weight of the battery and small wheelbase made itself known, and over 110kph it felt like it was running out of steam, and the high sides were getting pummelled in the wind.
My '17 500e has been amazing. Bought it right before covid for a little over $5k and it had 4k miles. It is now approaching 60k and it has never had a single issue. Only thing I've ever had to do was buy a 12v battery. 30 mile round trips 5 days a week costs me roughly $7 a week to drive.
That sounds great but maybe you should have done some maintenance like tires and brakes too, not just the things that keep it functional. At some point the neglect will add up and 60K is getting close I'd bet that's the life of your tires plus they're at least yrs old which is 2yrs past replacement.
@@bfairfax8772 I've done tires as well. There is no routine maintenance on these cars until 120k miles. That's when the coolant gets changed. Also, the brakes will last longer than the car since they don't get engaged until 7 miles an hour or slower.
For the AC, yes. I was just on a road trip in my wife's 2013 Impala and trying to do it in a single tank. 510 miles and it said 55 miles left by the estimate. The last 50 miles we had a big rain storm that fogged the windows on the outside, I turned off the AC and watched the estimated range go up from 68 to 76 while traveling 5 miles. So AC will definitely take 10-15% of your efficiency away. Though I bet windows would be worse over 40 mph.
I actually find fascinating the repair process on an EV, especially if it isn't just parts replacing. There are less moving parts, and parts in general, but they are all tied together by the angry pixies, which makes it very cool. Looking forward for more content from Wizard on it.
I just don't get all the hate between EV v ICE drivers. I bought a 5 year old low mileage Nissan Leaf and a 3 year old Toyota diesel station wagon. The Leaf is used for all my local sub-100 km journeys and the Toyota for very occasional longer journeys. The Leaf is charged by 4 solar panels on the garage roof. In 3 years, I've never used a commercial charger, have no range anxiety and never run out of battery. The Toyota averages a tank of fuel every three or four months. Last year I did 15,000 km in the Leaf and under 5,000 km in the Toyota. Perfect set up.
Sounds like we have the same strategy. We have a used BMW i3, (commute and short range) a diesel Skoda Superb (long range), a gas VW Golf (son's car), and a Porsche Cayman (dad's fun car). None of them nearly new. No plan to change any of them any time soon.
I wish they'd add active battery cooling to the leaf, I really wanted one, but I live in too hot of a climate. (Regularly over 38C) They have issues with the batteries dying prematurely in hot climates.
I think a lot of it has to do with our government trying to force this change upon us as the replacement for ICE. Also, most people don’t like change. Me, I see what automatics and Trucks/SUVs have done to the availability of manual transmissions and regular cars in general and I suddenly don’t blame them for the hate.
I can't justify the insurance and registration of having two vehicles. Years ago I did see the value of EVs, so I modified a mountain bike to run on a 48v system. Top speed of 30 mph, with a range of 20 to 30 miles depending upon how many batteries I carried. Plenty enough range to get me to work and in town travel. At the time it took me about a nickel to charge. Before retiring, of the 10k miles travelled 5k was done on the bike.
@covercalls88 In Sweden, we have a kind of on/off system that many people use, especially over the winter. Certain vehicles are less suitable at minus 20 Celsius 🥶. When you switch it off, you don't pay road tax, and the insurance will only cover non-traffic related damage, theft, and such. You switch on and off over the web. It takes less than a minute. Billing for tax and insurance is adjusted.
I drive an etransit van for work and the AC isn't that bad a drain even on a triple digit day with the ac running for a good 7 hours while I drive around and make deliveries is only knocks like 20% off the range. On a more moderately warm day its like 10%. The heat is worse but on most consumer ev's they were smart enough to spec heated seats which take negligible power to run vs heating the cabin. Some of the newer ev's actually have a heat pump which is a huge improvement in the winter.
Thanks for buying this car, Wizard and reporting on your updates. They seem like such a nice EV and maybe a little misunderstood. Cannot wait for more updates. Hate to see vehicles get bashed or trashed and it could (could being the operative word) be refurbished and continue as intended. Appreciate the education and communication!!
My neighbor bought his daughter a 2015 Fiat 500 Cabriolet with 48,000 original miles from our local Chrysler dealer. The car is flawless, cute as all get-out, and has been a dependable car for her to drive to school. I believe it has a 1.4L in-line four and a six-speed automatic. I don't want an EV regardless of the manufacturer!
I have him on my notifications and it's the only way his stuff shows up for me, not even in my subs or recommended...and I've been subscribed for like 7 years lmao
Yep, that's been a problem for awhile now. Half of the channels I'm subscribed to I have to use the search feature to find newly uploaded videos. Creators complaining about views, might wanna look into this issue cuz the videos aren't coming up like they should.
<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="595">9:55</a> - It's interesting The Wizard mentions the battery weighs 600 lbs (270 kg). The new Fiat 500e's battery weighs 650 lbs (295 kg), but you're getting 42 kWh instead of 24 kWh. 75% more capacity for less than 10% increase in weight. And they're only 10 years apart. The progress in EVs is crazy.
I'm seeing a future where you buy old ev, change the battery and controller and get double range, half weight and super quick charging. Maybe in five years!
Happy Birthday Mrs Wizard. My Dad bought one of these and the Battery apparently froze in the winter in Minnesota,. This is unimportant however. You Married yourself a Hero of a Hubby though, and I trust he has treated you like the queen you are I'm guessing 29... XOXO ! And yes I am now subscribed becuase I was told, we need telling everyday he he A Fiat ! What ? Ha Ha
Once you have your Fiat in good battery condition with 180 miles of range, you will feel so good not having to worry about gas, spark plugs, timing chains, tune ups, fan belts, transmissions..the list goes on and on. We drive a Tesla mY and in 3 years, all the money I spent on it were for new tires, cabin air filters (HEPA grade) and wipers. Good luck!
The Bosch AC synchronous electric motor that comes standard in the 2015 Fiat 500e generates an impressive 83 kilowatts of power, translating to 111 horsepower and 147 lb-ft of torque. This setup provides the Fiat with brisk acceleration and the instant responsiveness that only an electric motor can deliver, making it a perfect match for the urban environment it was designed to conquer.
First thing is to replace the 12V battery with a new one. It powers a bunch of stuff with the controller modules besides the headlights etc. Also you'll never get 160 miles per charge out of that 24kWh battery (the only one ever installed in pre 2023 cars) Double check that the half-shafts were replaced. There was a recall on the early cars. You can find pdf copies of the owners manual online.
AC is a huge power draw... even on gas cars... the difference is, you already lose ~75% of the gas energy even before the crank rotates... while you only lose ~10% from the battery, then you see the difference in the mile range being "huge" on electrics, it's precisely because they are so efficient.
The real problem is that the energy density in batteries is very, very low, compared to liquid fuel even after accounting for the thermal efficiency losses though. A 90 kWh 700kg/1500lb battery used at 100% efficiency is equal to 33L/8.7 US gallons (27kg/60lbs) of liquid petrol used at 30% efficiency. So the battery weighs 20x as much for the same amount of useable energy. So where it's trivial for a ICE car to have a 60L fuel tank (giving a RAV4 Hybrid a theoretical range of 1400km/900miles IIRC), if the Model Y had the same amount of useable energy all of a sudden the battery would weigh 2800lb instead of 1500lb which would make everything about the Model Y worse (hence why it doesn't come with a 170 kWh battery!).
@@TassieLorenzo sure, that's implicit on the efficiency fact, it's efficient and batteries carries less energy, so when something drains a lot of power, it shows...
Wizard, I only think the 42KW battery was introduced in the recently redesigned 500e. You can get a 24KW or 42KW. I thought all the first generation were 24KW getting you about 70 miles. Love my 2015! Also if the outside temp is high and the humidity low, my 24KW shows 125 mile range. I’m thinking your battery may be fine as is. It was designed to be a 70 mile car.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne: Please don't buy Fiat 500e electric car. "I hope you don't buy it because every time I sell one it costs me $14,000"
One thing I wish they would do is to figure out for any given vehicle, just how much power from the engine and fuel system or motor and battery is required just to move the vehicle. Kinda like on the Nebraska tests done on farm tractors where they measured how many HP were available at the PTO versus at the drawbar (hitch). For example, one of the more famous John Deere tractors (the Model D with spoked flywheel) had 27 horsepower on the PTO but only 15 on the drawbar, so it needs 12 horsepower just to get and keep the tractor going. On the other hand, one of the more well known Case steam tractors had 110 HP on the PTO but only 32 on the drawbar.
You can pretty much figure that out. OBD II dongles and apps like car scanner will give you real time power consumption. From there, it's just mathing it out relative to the rating of the motor.
The Scat Pack is a Karmic Sink and the 500e is a Karmic fountain. Y'all gotta get a Ludicrous Mode tesla with free lifetime supercharging. Best of both worlds. 920 Lb-Ft of Torque at the wheels. And no fuel fees ever. And when there's ANY issue you can buy them for almost nothing. Happy 22nd birthday Mrs. Wizard!
FYI, the metric for battery capacity is kWh (kilo-Watt-hour), not kW. So it’s a 42 kWh battery. kWh is the amount of energy storage, while kW is real time energy power. Thank you for dismissing one of the biggest falsehoods of older electric cars. This is the fact if a BCM or battery control module fails that’s inside the battery pack, the control module can be replaced OR repaired and the entire battery does NOT need to be replaced. Part of the misconception came about because when these vehicles were under warranty, if this part failed often the dealer would have the techs replace the entire battery pack under warranty instead of having the tech actually figure out and fix what was wrong with the car. Now since it’s out of warranty, these can be repaired the proper way. I hope more people understand this and more EV specialists go into business to fix and keep older EVs on the road.
Great video! This EV does have a resistive heater as you correctly state. However most new EVs have replaced the A/C + Resistive heater with a Heat Pump. Tesla (love them or hate them) have great range due to the implementation of the heat pump with the octovalve arrangement allowing the car to fully optimize the heating and cooling of all systems and the cabin.
My 2021 Model 3 has a really interesting cooling/heating setup. There is one heat pump (called the Octovalve) connected to everything...electronics, cabin heating/cooling, battery, and drive unit. It uses a glycol based fluid to move heat from place to place. There is a condenser and an evaporator for the cabin, and a backup heater in the event it gets really cold (like -20F or colder). Running the heat does cost some range, but not nearly as much as a car like this that uses electric heating coils. I get about 270-ish miles of range when it's warm and the heater isn't needed. And around 200-220 in the winter. 54kWh battery.
I own a Tesla and charge at home with Solar. I save $400/month on home electricity and gas. I can not control healthcare costs but can control energy costs
Buying a used EV can be a gamble, especially with potential battery issues. It's great that you're documenting your experience. Sharing your journey can help others avoid similar pitfalls.
Wizard I wish They had more standardize batteries in controllers, so you could get a knock off version for an older electric vehicle, or at least get factory authorized parts at a cheaper rate than each individual vehicle having their own system
Good video, Mr. Wizard. Very interesting, and I gladly subscribed. I spent a lot of time researching 500e information after I purchased my 500e (also pearl color), but I never came across any mention of any battery other than the 24kWh (22.2?) in a gen1 500e (years 2013 to 2019). Don't rely too much on that range estimate, which can be way way off; better to rely on the State of Charge at the bottom of the green bar. Even so, I think you'll love the little car after you get it fixed. I'm the third owner of my 2018 model, have had it over a year, and have had absolutely zero problems with it. It's a blast to drive around town.
80% of repairs most EV’s do not require a lift. Most parts are plug and play. Only around 80 moving/wearing parts vs 1000’s moving/wearing parts in a gas vehicle. EV could be a forever car. Batteries can easily last 300,000-500,000 miles with still 50% charge or more. You could take the 50% degraded batteries and use in your house for another decade. 42 kwh battery degraded to 20 kwh. A new Tesla powerwall battery storage only 14 kwh. After another 10 years you can sell battery to recycle company as valuable metals.
a lift make life easier , but there are way to remove a EV pack without a lift, but you do need specialize tools/make your own lift table. there going to be a need for a new generation of diy tools for home EV repair in the future.
Happy Birthday Mrs. Wizard!!! I grew up around FIAT cars as we had a few around, really liked my 1980 Brava. Would like to find one again!!! Had a few X1/9’s as well
Tripped out in the video intro, hearing the low speed whirring noise. Thought it was mine. lol This has to be a super good play by the Wizard. The 500e wasn't made to revolutionize EVs and attract the top 1% with spacious, lavish interiors, and fancy gadgets. It was made to be compliant with government regulation, and be extremely overbuilt (hence the excellent motor and battery pack) so as to have a long service life with virtually no maintenance, and also shares a lot of parts with an existing gas platform (the regular 500) to keep things cheap. I've had mine for 5 years (bought in 2019 with 58k miles, has 85k now) and I absolutely love it. Haven't had anything go seriously wrong with it either. Hopefully he can learn a thing or two, maybe even figure out how to rebuild packs himself! I'd imagine it'd a breeze for someone like the Car Wizard, given the right tools. Hopefully the battery pack control module comes back and that fixes everything, a 42kWh version of this I'd imagine would be bonkers to have as any sort of commuter/beater, or even a downtown comfortable cruiser for Mrs. Wizard!
Happy Birthday Mrs. Wizard! Not going to guess your age, a gentleman wouldn't ask or need to know. Wizard, I hope this project turns out a winner. It is a nice little car.
In Australia the government gave helpful hints on getting the best range out of your EV. They said because air conditioners sap the range, then you should “run your air con while charging the car and then turn it off when you drive away again”. Yeah. First, I’m not sure they know how quickly a car will heat up with the air conditioner turned off. Second, that’ll be fun in a Queensland summer when it’s over 40 degrees Celsius. Nobody is going to drive around then without air con on.
Hey Wizard, they make lowering springs specifically for a 500e. You should lower that thing....and tell us what else you needed to buy to correct the alignment, like adjust cam bolts or something. Maybe just the springs and nothing else???
AC - we recently bought a used 2022 Prius to replace a 2006 Prius. The gas mileage has been HORRID for a few months at least, in the low 40s, even high 30s. My wife ran a test - going TO work early morning without AC needed, she got 63. Coming home at 5ish, she got 43 with the AC on. I told her she needed to do a run home without AC to be valid due to 100'+ elevation change over her 20ish mile drive, so she suffered through it and got 52mpg with AC off. So yes, AC can make a HUGE difference on fuel efficient vehicles. And it explains why her tank mpg has been crap for months - I drive it 2-3 days a week and I CANNOT skip the AC in Florida. So I've been dragging it down. We expect mid-50s when "fall" arrives late November.
I have a 17kWh Smart For Two EQ and in summer on twisty 60mph roads I can get 100 miles range before it trundles to a halt but it will easily do 90 miles range and still have around 10% battery left. In winter that range drops to 70miles. So you don't need a huge battery in a small car to get reasonable range.
I have a 2024 Cadillac Lyriq EV that measures all electricity usage and in Texas setting the fan on high and temp to 72 degrees F, it shows that on normal mixed city and highway usage, AC uses approximately 5-10% of the total energy used
