Fiat Multiplina EV: Specs, Price, and L7 Quadricycle Details

Fiat is preparing to enter the four-seat electric quadricycle market with the Multiplina, a compact battery-electric vehicle engineered to meet Europe’s L7 heavy quadricycle regulations. The model targets buyers who need more passenger capacity than a two-seat microcar but want to avoid the cost and footprint of a conventional subcompact hatchback.

Under European Union type-approval rules, L7 vehicles are restricted to a maximum continuous rated power output of 15 kilowatts and an unladen mass of 450 kilograms, excluding batteries. These constraints dictate the Multiplina’s performance envelope. Fiat confirmed the vehicle will reach a top speed of 55 mph, sitting just below the regulatory ceiling. Gaetano Thorel, head of Fiat Europe, told Auto Express that the Multiplina will carry a larger battery and deliver greater range than the brand’s existing Topolino city car, which relies on a 5.4-kilowatt-hour pack and an 8-horsepower electric motor limited to 28 mph under the lighter L6e classification.

While exact battery capacity and range figures remain undisclosed, surpassing the Topolino’s specifications requires stepping beyond the 6-kWh threshold typical of neighborhood electric vehicles. Competitors in the emerging four-seat micro-EV space generally utilize packs between 15 kWh and 30 kWh to achieve practical urban driving ranges of 60 to 120 miles per charge.

The Multiplina originated as the Quattrolino concept, unveiled during the Stellantis Investor Day in May alongside the Panda-based Grizzly SUVs and the Tris three-wheeler. Fiat was forced to abandon the Quattrolino nameplate because Audi holds long-standing trademark rights to the “quattro” designation for its all-wheel-drive systems, making the original moniker legally untenable.

Stellantis, Fiat’s parent company, routinely shares vehicle architectures across its portfolio. The two-seat Topolino shares its platform with the Citroen Ami and the Opel Rocks Electric. Thorel indicated that a similar badge-engineering strategy is under consideration for the Multiplina, confirming early-stage work on a potential Citroen-badged variant, though the project currently remains exclusively under the Fiat brand.

Pricing positions the Multiplina directly into a contested segment of the European budget EV market. With the two-seat Topolino retailing around £9,000 and the fully homologated electric Fiat 500 starting near £21,000, industry estimates place the four-seater at approximately £14,000. At that price point, the Multiplina would compete against entry-level conventional electric cars like the Dacia Spring and the Leapmotor T03, both of which offer higher top speeds and longer ranges but fall outside the simplified licensing and insurance advantages granted to quadricycles in several European nations.

Unlike standard passenger cars, L7 quadricycles do not require manufacturers to meet the same crash-test protocols mandated for M1-category vehicles, significantly reducing development costs while raising distinct safety considerations for buyers comparing them to traditional automobiles.

Fiat has not announced a production start date or confirmed specific launch markets for the Multiplina beyond its European development base.