Abarth, part of the Stellantis Group, was originally the performance brand of Fiat, which had acquired the company in 1971. From then on, the company (which was established in 1949) adapted Fiat models to be higher performance variants which were sold under its own brand name. An exception was the 124 Spider produced between 2015 and 2019.which was adapted from the 4^th generation Mazda MX-5.

Like AMG and M GmbH, the performance brands of Mercedes-Benz and BMW, Abarth has also to start its electrification journey as the auto industry as a whole has committed towards carbon neutrality over the next few decades. Even companies like Ferrari and Lamborghini have been forced to start switching to zero emissions powertrains whether they like to or not.

With the new 500e, Abarth offers its first battery electric vehicle (BEV) which is adapted from the Fiat 500e which went on sale in early 2020. However, being a performance brand, Abarth has not just taken the Fiat model and out on its badge, which is characterized by a scorpion. Just as Porsche and BMW M made sure that their electric models have high performance worthy of their badges, Abarth has also given its version an extra measure of performance.