Fiat 500 Hybrid TOP review: 'The new Fiat has MPG so good I drove 20 miles to buy my favourite bread'

It will have a choice of a mild hybrid petrol engine and a fully electric motor. It will be the first in a series of new affordable cars, says its maker.

Fiat is an expert in small cars. The electric 500e leads the city-car sector in Europe. On its zero-emission tail is the larger and newer electric 600e, which we like very much.

Electric cars are meeting resistance from households strapped for cash, or just not in tune with the electric messages. Fiat announced will build a hybrid version on the 500e platform - facing the facts that electric is divisive. There’s already a self-charging 600 Hybrid.

The 500H is based on a previous generation to the electric 500 and can’t have many years left. It is its smallest and cheapest car, from £16,800 in Sicilian orange paint. PCP deals over 49 months start at £199 monthly for 6,000 miles a year. The other colours, such as pasodoble red, are £650. I’d go for epic blue metallic, the shade of deep oceans.

Fiat sent us the orange one, raising a wave from a couple in an identical one. I felt in place, in the 500 Club almost.

The 500, which in style and ethos dates from the middle of the last century, is a two-door, four-seater hatchback, front wheel drive, and the right size for urban life and narrow country lanes.

You can find and use parking spaces more easily — an advantage of other small narrow cars like the Hyundai i10 and Kia Picanto, both with four doors. The 500 is slightly smaller and, lacking rear doors, not as practical for passengers or loading shopping.

Standard stuff includes air conditioning, electric windows and side mirrors, a touchscreen, smart phone connections, cruise control, stop-start ignition, a fixed glass roof, 50/50 split rear seats and a blow & go puncture repair kit, 15 inch alloys and two USB ports plus 12v socket.

A space saver spare wheel would be £200 and may save you from stranding if you get the wrong puncture. I’d tick that box. Other options include body stripes and decals, and external carriers for extra luggage, skis and snowboards — a must-have for striking the right image in alpine terrain.

The other version is the 500 Top, £18,300 or £239 a month. It gains 16 inch wheels, climate and cruise control, door sill and exhaust finishers, rear parking sensors and a more informative, active TFT digital instrument cluster.

TomTom navigation filled out the deal, but has been dropped this year so you'll have to use your phone for mapping. Everything you need is to-hand, proper buttons and switches, a stubby gear shifter on the dashboard.

The TFT display showed we had averaged 60mpg over the last 500 miles. In that trip was a long stretch of motorway when it recorded similar economy. Interim readings never dropped under 50mpg. Taking advantage of this frugality to drive 20 miles to buy my favourite bread, it exceeded 70mpg. No part of this was aiming at economy. I was keeping up with traffic most of the time.

Longer inclines can need a bit of patience and gear changing. The 70 horse power 999cc three-cylinder engine has been designed and built to suit the brio of Continental life. The six-speed gearbox allows civilised cruising at 70mph.

On the way, second gear will take you screaming to 40mph on the 6,000rpm red line and third gear is good for 60mph. You can reckon on 14 seconds to get there — so this 500 is about enjoyable utility, not cafe-racing. Check the vibrant and rapid Abarth version if that’s your thing: you’ll make memories and wake the neighbours.

Given its limitations in pace and size, if it fits your life, you’ll like the 500 Hybrid. That long motorway trip (200 miles each way) was not the yawn you may anticipate. In fact the well-kept surface suited the suspension, which can get angry on patchy roads. It did the 400-mile round trip with 80 miles left in the tank.

On the motorway and most other roads there is little practical advantage in having a fast car. Journey times are similar.

How many of us see neighbours with luxury or large cars and SUVs setting off to work, solo. Small may indeed be beautiful, as Fritz Schumacher wrote 50 years ago, though he was addressing industrial giants. In cars, larger can be more convenient, if you need it.

You can still get golfing apparatus in a 500 by folding the back seats. My bag of old clubs was handed down from my great uncle, who made them in Glasgow. I do not play but use them for such arcane measuring.

Fiat 500 Hybrid TOP: £18,300; 1-litre petrol mild hybrid; 69bhp, an 66 lb/ft; six-speed manual; 104 mph. 0-62mph, 13.8 seconds; 57.6 mpg; Tank 7.7 gallons; CO2 emissions110g; Length 141inches; fiat.co.uk