First look at new Fiat 500 Hybrid - with manual gearbox

That's great news for city car owners who miss the driving involvement of the previous-generation hatchback, and if the 500 hybrid comes to the US, it would also be the first electrified car with a stick-shift since the Honda CR-Z was discontinued in 2016.

The Hybrid Is Entering Pre-Production Right Now

Fiat announced the manual-transmission 500 earlier today when it published photos of a lineup of pre-production hybrids rolling off the company's Miraflori, Turin, manufacturing facility. The plant has been experiencing challenges of late due to the slow global sales of its other primary product, the 500e. Fiat says that offering its city car with a hybrid powertrain will ensure it stays relevant and offers some of the benefits of electrification to a wider audience.

That said, the 500 hybrid is going to be a somewhat compromised automobile, given it's based on a design that was never intended to see internal combustion. And instead of a plug-in or parallel-hybrid product, the mild-hybrid 500 won't be able to run on electricity alone, so the gas engine will always be running. As for what will power the newest Fiat variant, the automaker wouldn't say. But Autocar suggests that it'll probably be the company's Firefly 1.0-liter inline-three, which makes just 69 horsepower and 68 pound-feet of torque, since other small four-cylinders that could potentially fit aren't offered with manual gearboxes.