Blending Heritage and Innovation: The Abarth 600e Redefines Performance Design

• The design of the powerful new Abarth 600e is the visual translation of performance merging the brand’s heritage while setting firmly its sights on the future.
• The exterior design perfectly expresses past intuitions, such as Carlo Abarth’s resin spoiler, reinterpreted through a contemporary lens enabling Abarth’s electric switch toward the electric era.
• The interior design masterfully combines Abarth’s knowledge, focusing on cutting-edge, innovative sporty style and racing world elements to increase driving pleasure.
   

Driven by history and passion, the new Abarth 600e is the purest expression of Abarth’s new design language, a visual translation of performance. Not by chance, some of the design choices made on this vehicle reflect past intuitions that gave birth to some of the brand’s most successful cars, paying homage to this legacy while setting its sights firmly on the future.

Abarth’s legacy is prominent in the exterior design of the new Abarth 600e, thanks to a blend of modern design weaved into early choices. Two worlds are here combined, representing both the origins of the Scorpion Brand and the gaming world with the reinterpretation of the striped theme and scorpion that already made its debut on the Abarth 500e, as a brand identifier, and contributed to expressing its electric switch toward the electric era. Indeed, the electrified Scorpion still is the undisputed protagonist of the brand’s vehicles together with the striped pattern, enriching some of the external spots around the car: in addition to the logos on the fenders and the Abarth badge on the bonnet, the beloved but threatening symbol appears on the centerline, engraved on the black surfaces of the front and rear bumpers and spoiler.

Another leap into the past is the reinterpretation in a contemporary key of the large, brutally squared-off volume of the Abarth 850 TC’s front radiator, the so-called “cassettone”. The Abarth 850 TC is the first car under the “Turismo Competizione” Scorpion badge, a serene family car transformed into an agile, lightweight, and fast racing vehicle that clinched numerous European competitions, with an astounding record of 51 victories out of 53 races.  Square and slightly brutal, the Abarth 600e’s bumper helps give the car a sporty look and a strong emotional impact.

The New Abarth 600e also pays homage to Carlo Abarth’s intuition who foresaw the double functionality of the open trunk, which improved, dissipating heat, performance in cooling and aerodynamics. Carlo Abarth’s visionary resin spoiler gave birth to the Abarth “wing”, a feature now prominent on many of Abarth’s successful vehicles. The Abarth 600e’s spoiler was developed separating the airflow in two to improve the drag of the car, and , to always provide excellent performance, Abarth’s designers studied and tested several times the squared shapes of the aero spoiler and the extractor in the bumper in the special wind tunnel.

In addition to past influences, a second theme steps in to enrich the new design language of the Abarth 600e. Inspired by the digital and gaming world, square geometry is reinforced by strong graphics featuring inclined lines, engraved on the surfaces that become a grille in the air intake. To exalt the resulting effect, Abarth designers made this logic of form and processing appear on the rear bumper as well.

For the exterior bold design, the Scorpion brand focused on four main elements that make the new Abarth 600e the representation of Abarth’s performance attainment: the front and rear bumpers, the spoiler, and the wheels. On the front, aerodynamic and cooling performance is enhanced by pushing forward the profile, resulting in the “shark nose effect” that gives additional spice, while the volume stands out thanks to a unique bumper and the three-dimensional Abarth inscription. In addition, together with the Motorsport team, designers provided the car with a low setup and a large track with an additional 30mm on the front and an additional 25mm on the back, reinforcing the external look.

The last of the main elements, the 20-inch diamond-alloy wheels, is mainly built around three parts: a solid but lightweight internal structure that calls back to the car body; the sting representing an aerodynamic function and inspiring the external graphics and, finally, the mono-bolt effect that recalls the racing world.

Altogether, the car sports a bold design with elements that emphasize its aggressiveness, such as the specific rear lamp bezel, the coffered-inspired shape, and the black mirror caps and handles contrasting with the exciting colors of the Scorpionissima: the Acid Green, as a reference to the antidote’s color, and the exclusive Hypnotic Purple which was inspired by the post-puncture hypnotic effect.

As appealing as the exterior, the interiors consolidate Abarth designers’ high qualifications. With the contribution of the Ergonomics Team, a major design effort was made to the Abarth 600e Sabelt’s seat, instrumentation, and steering wheel which pays tribute to the two-spoke steering wheel traditionally found in racing vehicles such as the Abarth 131 Rally. All these elements make the vision perfectly in axis, a feature that is key for every sportscar, facilitating the connection between man and vehicles, and have been specifically designed and crafted to embody, contain, and elevate the perception of sportiness. In particular, the Abarth 600e features a sporty steering wheel with perforated leather and Alcantara inserts, both in the upper and lower part, to attain additional sportiness and maximize grip, and a special steering wheel viewfinder at 12 o’clock. Conveying and preserving the lightness of the vehicle, are the same elements that have made racing history.

Reclaiming the Scorpion vibes and lightness of the majestic alloy wheels, the Scorpionissima Sabelt’s racing seats exhibit electro-welded Alcantara with scorpionflage distinctive and exclusive design. This aggressive configuration perforated and with an integrated headrest, aims to express a racing connotation and conveys agility with the fragmented style of the rims and holes while providing the strength of the scorpion.  The idea is to contrast full and empty since the structure is light maintaining good comfort and lateral containment as well.

The second seat’s configuration, available in the Abarth 600e Turismo, maintains clear reference with the brand’s heritage thanks to the headrest integrated in the back. Furthermore, here the fabric texture of the seats is embellished by a striped graphic pattern, inspired by the gaming world and already present in other parts of the vehicle.

The interior’s dark theme is obtained through elements such as the black A, B, and C pillars, headliners, overhead, and trims. To keep a contrasting effect, these are exalted by colored details such as the seams or the attractive Scorpion on the steering wheel which further boosts the driving excitement. The new design language expresses its innovative and sporty essence through specific choices that enrich the environment: dedicated seats, pedals covered in aluminum, footrests, and floor mats.

To maximize the vehicle’s coolness, the gaming effect enriches the user experience being also evident in the cluster when it projects outwards.  In addition, the internal look presents some bonus features like the Abarth kick plate, the 7-inch cluster color TFT with specific Abarth graphics and sounds, the tunnel pad cover which, like the ambient light and the dashboard matte black fascia with its glossy black serigraphy, will only be available with the Scorpionissima.

The new Abarth 600e’s design can be defined as timeless, as it merges legacy with innovation, expressing the perfect balance between the Scorpion brand’s devotion to its roots and the vision of the future.

Turin, 21 November, 2024