After shutting the door on combustion engines in 2024, Abarth is now weighing up opening it again. The full-electric push with the 500e and 600e initially looked encouraging, but the figures tell a very different story: in 2025, sales dropped by 74% compared with 2024.
Faced with those results - and with demand for electric models coming in below expectations - the Italian brand is once again considering something that, not long ago, seemed unlikely: a return to combustion engines.
Abarth reconsiders combustion engines after a 74% sales drop
Autocar reports, citing its sources, that Abarth is already working in that direction, although final sign-off has not yet been given. And the comeback may not involve the 500 or the 600 but - surprisingly - the Grande Panda. The logic is to relaunch the Scorpion brand with a more affordable offering that can deliver higher sales volumes.
Asked whether a new high-performance model could join the range, Gaetano Thorel, who oversees FIAT and Abarth in Europe, would only say the brand will “make use of Abarth’s heritage in another model”, without offering further detail.
Grande Panda: a potential new entry point for Abarth
With that in mind, questions remain about what to expect from a hypothetical Abarth Grande Panda with a combustion engine, should it get the green light. The model uses Stellantis’ Smart Car multi-energy platform and also comes with the 1.2 Turbo used in the 600. If the intention is to create an entry step into the Abarth world, the performance brief being considered may be less ambitious.
The British outlet even points to a hybrid option, drawing on the solution shown by the Grande Panda 4×4 prototype, which featured an electrified rear axle - potentially offering a more favourable performance/emissions mix.
FIAT 500 already has a combustion engine, but it doesn’t work
Even though the FIAT 500 has returned to offering a combustion engine, Abarth decision-makers have already said it would not be economically viable to develop combustion successors to the 595/695. It would not make sense to “push” the small turbocharged engine further, and there is no room to fit a larger engine.
The FIAT 600, meanwhile, already uses a 1.2 Turbo, but that still falls short of the performance target - the 600e delivers up to 280 cv, and a combustion 600 would need output close to that to provide comparable performance.
On top of that, in previous comments, Gaetano Thorel had said a petrol Abarth 600 would have high emissions, bringing significant costs for the brand (emissions targets) and for the customer (taxation).
What Abarth fans miss: tuning potential and combustion sound
A potential return of petrol engines to Abarth also acknowledges - as Thorel himself has indicated - how much fans miss two traits closely linked to the brand’s cars: the ability to modify them and the distinctive sound of combustion engines. That is something fully electric Abarths, despite their performance, simply cannot offer.
“When you speak with an Abarth enthusiast, you realise it’s more than a performance brand: it has always been a tuning-up brand. People who bought Abarth in the past loved ‘getting their hands’ into the engine to improve it - and with electric cars they can’t do that.”
Gaetano Thorel, CEO of FIAT and Abarth in Europe
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