A couple of days ago, Fiat unveiled a host of micromobility solutions with uniquely Italian touches. As well as giving its electric Topolino LSV new colors and partnering with a coffee roaster that would presumably set up shop on Italian street corners using the Fiat TRIS three-wheeler, the company’s social media posts show the Topolino having arrived in the US.
As well as the Dolce Vita sort of laid-back “good life” touch Fiat is eager to apply onto anything it currently builds, the most interesting point in Fiat’s micromobility suite is the Multiplina concept, which brings back the Multipla name and thinking. It’s not quite the replacement for the millennial Multipla, known to be horrendously ugly incredibly cool but more of a throwback to the 1950s original, with its basis on the aforementioned Topolino.
If you haven’t heard of the Topolino, maybe its Citroën Ami sibling is more familiar sounding. It’s a plastic, two-door, two-seater light car that doesn’t necessarily require a driving license to operate on roads, and it’s only available as an EV.
Traditionally, Europeans have gotten around in varyingly terrible plastic boxes in those use cases when they have been the most viable option for unlicensed drivers young and old. The Moroccan-built Topolino and Ami and their Opel-badged Rocks-e sibling come from established car manufacturers, and even if they have a certain amount of built-in flimsiness, they are perhaps closer to cars than some other offerings. Especially as they aren’t propelled by shaky, rattly diesels but smooth electric power, all six kilowatts of it. The battery is 5.5 kWh in size.
Because they are about as wide as they are long, with the front end looking the same as the back, the Topolino and especially the Ami look like garden sheds with wheels.
Despite being optimized for European streets, the Topolino started its journey across the Atlantic, towards American consumers. Late last year, Fiat’s CEO, Olivier Francois (above), stated that there have been plans to bring the Topolino to the United States:
“The Fiat Topolino, our small, joyful, colorful car that is now everywhere in Europe, has made several appearances in the U.S. over the past year, including last month at the LA Auto Show, where it’s creating tremendous excitement among consumers. So much so that I’m happy to share that we’ll be bringing the Fiat Topolino to the U.S., with more details to come next year.”
In Fiat’s Instagram post shared a day ago, blurry Topolinos are rolling off the boat. No prices have yet been mentioned, or when the tiny cars will actually be available to be bought, but they’re there.
Henkilön Official FIAT USA (@fiatusa) jakama julkaisu
In addition to the Topolino material, Fiat released a single image of the Multiplina concept car, which shows a longer-wheelbase monobox vehicle with narrow tires in the corners and a look that’s again derived from the classic 500.
Fiat has been eager to put the same face on various cars, yet it works well here, especially with the warm mango yellow hue of the two-tone bodywork. The top part is cream white, with a roll-up top to let the Italian sun inside.
The Multiplina, which uses a diminutive form of the word Multipla for a name, is in Fiat’s view yet another step towards a real car from the quadricycle standpoint. Cutting through the blurb, which features phrasing such as “maximizing space-efficiency through an intelligent, human-centric architecture,” the message is about fitting more people inside the same basic structure as with the smaller Topolino.
Let’s Post Some Photos Of The Fiat Multipla
The Fiat Multipla has never been known for being especially beautiful. The 1998-introduced six-seater MPV prioritized interior space over everything else, which gave it very bizarre looks. The design appeared to be modular, with the passenger compartment its own bulging space, with straight sides and a separate front. A while ago, Adrian analyzed the 1998 Multipla’s polarizing design in this great article.
In recent years, the Multipla has become a meme and a phenomenon due to its polarizing looks, which Fiat even ruined back in the day with a smoothing facelift. The Multipla name came from the Fiat 600’s egg-shaped multi-purpose version, which was a sort of proto-minivan.
The Fiat 600 Multipla
The absolutely original Fiat Multipla took its platform and basics from the 1955 Fiat 600, but added seats for up to six people. Since the engine was in the back, there was enough space to move the front bench atop the front wheels. The front seat was accessed via rear-hinged “suicide” doors, with large side doors providing access to the passenger seat rows. In other words, maximizing space-efficiency through an intelligent, human-centric architecture.
The layout and packaging are quite daring, especially as the front passenger also had the spare wheel next to their knees. Consider also that the engines were still the same as in the original 600, meaning a power output of 21hp at first and a 1960 power boost to 25 horsepower, and we’re talking about a plate that’s pretty full. At least if you hit something with it, you wouldn’t have had that much speed when you arrived to the accident.
The design is also very odd, as it has a more vertical front end and a sloping 600-shaped rear. As a result, it looks like a reversing egg.
Fiat built the 600 Multipla for a little over ten years, and it was replaced by the Fiat 850 Familiare in the late ‘60s. The Familiare kind of looks like a shrunken Corvair Greenbriar, and also had the same layout.
The replacement for the 1990s-2000s Fiat Multipla also dropped the Multipla name, as it was again a 500-based and 500-faced blob called the 500L. Again built for ten years, it never achieved the cult status that the Multipla did, and the seating arrangement was more normal, with no three-wide front seat. You could get it as a seven-seater version with a longer rear section. Currently, Fiat makes the 600 again, which is styled after the – you guessed it – the classic Fiat 500 and 600 of the 1950s, but it’s on the same platform as the Jeep Avenger and the Peugeot 2008. The recent introduction of the Fiat (Grande) Panda is a welcome break from putting the same front-end design on all the cars.
If it makes sense for Fiat to bring the plastic Topolino to America, it would make sense for it to introduce the Multiplina later on, as it will be bigger and feature more interior space. Let’s hope all the Multipla memes in the world convince the manufacturer to do it.
All images and top graphic: Fiat
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