New Four-Seat Fiat Multiplina Will Be The Cutest Way For Unlicensed Teens To Get Around
One of the most delightful categories of carspotting in Europe are the microcars. You've got things like kei cars, Smart Fortwos, and tiny vintage Fiats and Citroëns. The real weird ones, at least for American eyes, are the quadricycles. Their own vehicle type entirely, these things are barely "cars," with restrictions on power and speed that make them really only feasible in the city. But they're cute and cheap, and in countries like France and Italy, people as young as 14 can legally drive them without a license.
In recent years, quadricycles have seen a huge boom in popularity and worldwide recognition because of one model: The Citroën Ami. People love the Ami, whether they own one, have seen them driving around Paris, or watched TikToks of Amis being raced and tipped over. That love extends to its Opel sibling the Rocks, but the best version of these wonderful little things is the retro-styled Fiat Topolino.
Last year the Topolino became the European sales leader in the quadricycle segment, beating its Citroën sibling, and Fiat is leaning hard into the rapidly growing micromobility market. Last year we saw Fiat's new three-wheeled Tris truck, and now it's showing off the Multiplina, an adorable new four-seat microcar inspired by the 600 Multipla of the 1950s.
Maybe it'll even come to the U.S.
According to Car, the automaker was going to reveal the Multiplina concept to journalists at a media event in Vatican City this week, but Fiat CEO Oliver Francois wasn't happy with some of the details, so it'll now be shown in October. We've only got one image to work with — the one at the top of this story — but that's enough to definitively say the Multiplina is cute as hell. Just look at its smile! The visual link to the old Multipla (shown above) is clear, and the Multiplina looks both more modern and more high-quality than its Topolino sibling.
Like on the Topolino there's only one door on each side, but the Multiplina is big enough to gain a back seat, and the opening should be wide enough for ingress and egress to be pretty good. Maybe there will be a version with no doors. We don't have any specs yet, but Fiat says it's about the same size as an original Fiat 500, so about a foot and a half longer than a Topolino (and the same amount shorter than a 600 Multipla). The automaker describes the Mutiplina as "the missing link between a Topolino and a car," and that it'll have "a layout that maximises space efficiency through an intelligent, human-centric architecture." We can see that it'll have a rollback cloth sunroof, too.
While the Topolino is an L6e-class light quadricycle, which limits motor output to 8 horsepower and top speed to 28 mph, the Multiplina will be an L7e heavy quadricycle, which means it can have up to 20 hp and hit nearly 60 mph. With a larger battery it should also have a notably longer range than the Topolino's 46 miles. And while you might be thinking "yeah this thing is cute as hell, but we'll never get it in the U.S.," think again. Fiat is still adamant that it's bringing the Topolino to the U.S. — it even just posted a video of a bunch of them driving off a cargo ship at an American port — and the Multiplina would probably be even more appealing to customers here. We don't yet know what sort of restrictions or classifications the U.S.-spec Topolino will have, but we're excited nonetheless.