Jolly good: this Fiat 500 is now a sub-one tonne, fully electric beach car – Top Gear

You’re not even reading this, are you? Most likely you’re looking up ‘cheap flights to Italy’ so you can sample the orange slice of sunshine in the pics above. It is a very special Fiat 500 called the ‘Marina’, devoid of trinketry, a roof, some doors, pillars and most notably, combustion.

It is yet another insanely adorable Fiat 500, only this time, electric. It’s the latest project from the people over at Real Italian Cars, who last year gave us the insanely adorable Fiat 500, only that time, combustion.

We knew something like this was in the works, and now we have Details. The 500 Jolly’s drivetrain has been ripped out and replaced with a waterproof battery and electric motor sourced from a Japanese nautical supplier.

The former is able to power the little tyke through 155 miles of range (250km), while the latter offers up 31.5kW, which is around 42 no doubt adorable little electric horsepowers.

It’s surprisingly fast, the surprise coming mainly from the whole ‘not having a roof or doors’ thing. RIC has given us a 0-50 mph time of around six seconds, and a top speed limited to 68mph. You will absolutely not need any of that, but it’s nice to have.

What’s also nice are brakes from Abarth, a total weight of less than 1,000kg (that whole ‘no roof or doors thing’ again), a recharging time of around 40mins on a fast charger, and added practicality over the regular, now-less-jolly-than-this-Jolly 500.

That’s because where once the engine lived in the boot, it now… doesn’t. Because there isn’t one. And where once the fuel tank lived in the front, it now… doesn’t. Because there isn’t one. So there’s loads of room to pack a picnic and some sunnies.

Which bystanders might need, because the lights on this Jolly are now LEDs, and are a claimed five times brighter than the original units. There’s more LED action inside via a digital display offering one of three modes to choose from: sport, road and eco.

Speaking about the inside, each one of these 500 Jollys is entirely customisable – this show car features an onboard shower, for example – and because the original wiring has been binned, there are greater options for stereos and connectivity and the like. The interior materials are all bespoke, too.

Which means the price will be rather bespoke. Prices start from €50,000 for the Marina, but if you want this drivetrain in a regular, not-as-jolly-as-this-Jolly Fiat 500, that EV starts from €35,000.

“Our electric Fiat 500s offer the best of both worlds, matching the dolce vita elegance and colour palette of Italy’s most iconic car to modern-day practicalities and environmental awareness,” said RIC’s Anthony Peacock. “If the car’s original designer, Dante Giacosa, had this solution and infrastructure available to him in the 1950s, we feel sure he would have chosen it.”