Mercedes-Benz Eqe53 vs Fiat 500E

What's the difference?

The EQE is more than an important car for Mercedes. Not only is it the German titan’s latest electric offering, on all-new underpinnings, but it represents the very future of its passenger car range.

It adopts a completely new shape and design language, but it also puts its fastest foot forward, launching with the 53 AMG variant first in Australia, by the end of 2022.

We travelled to Europe to sample it for the first time ahead of its Australian arrival to find out what the future of Mercedes feels like, but also how its go-fast AMG division has managed to leave its mark on an electric car.

You wouldn’t know it to look at it, but this is a brand-new — as in really and truly all-new — Fiat 500.

That has got to be a big deal for fans of Fiat’s pint-sized city car, with a genuinely all-new 500 about rare as spotting Halley’s Comet soaring over Turin. The last time was way back in 2007, by the way, and that car will remain on sale alongside this new one for the foreseeable.

But that’s not the only surprise. This 500 is also entirely electric, properly modern inside, and it has actual technology in its cabin and on its safety list.

Fiat reckons this is a big reset for the 500. And that there will never be another all-new petrol model again.

So, how does this new 500e stack up against the recent flood of small EVs, predominantly from China?

Let’s go find out.