Little Mouse
December 10, 2025
Alex KiersteinFiat’s CEO makes a surprising announcement: the Fiat Topolino is coming to America. The way it’ll be sold, and why, are both obvious and baffling.
Automotive events of late have taken a surreal, although not necessarily surprising, turn. Akio Toyoda’s fashion statement at Fuji Speedway, CAFE standards “retrenchment,” President Trump’s strange fascination with kei cars. Any of these things, by themselves, would be auto industry earthquakes in another moment. Now, it’s just a weekday. Speaking of weekdays, it’s Tuesday, and Fiat CEO Oliver Francois has said (out loud) that the Fiat Topolino will be sold in the United States.
The Topolino. It’s a quadricycle designed to very specific European licensing standards. It allows some drivers to travel on certain roadways without a full (and difficult-to-get) driver’s license. The specifics differ from country to country. The vehicles are restricted by size, weight, maximum speed, and total power output. A normal quadricycle, like the Citroen Ami or the Fiat Topolino, is limited to 8 hp.
Eight.
These things top out under 30 mph, too.
At the risk of overstating the obvious, it is not difficult to get a driver’s license in the U.S. An oft-quoted study by a law firm says it’s hardest in Washington, where I live. It’s expensive, relatively, at $85. There are fewer chances to correct mistakes on the driving test. In other states, you get multiple tries for various elements before you’re actually failed. In Germany, getting a license requires an outlay of at least $2,800, and it’s a long, difficult process.
Hence the appeal of quadricycles, ebikes, scooters, and so forth. Vehicles for moving around locally, at low speeds in urban environments. That’s fine for a Fiat Topolino. It’s basically a two-seat scooter, really.
Upon hearing today’s announcment from CEO Francois, I had some questions. So, I sent a nice Fiat rep a note asking about how it would be sold and how long plans had been in motion before Francois’ announcement. Her reply was kind but light on details.
“At this time, the only news shared by Olivier is that the all-electric Fiat Topolino is coming to the US early next year.”
After years of interacting with automaker reps, you can get a sense of what’s between the words. To me, this reads like the announcement was a surprise, and internal plans for Topolino sales here didn’t exist or didn’t trickle down to media relations.
“Product specificity/pricing/classification to come, but it would not be fully NHTSA compliant.”
This is less ambiguous. While there was an enthusiastic but off-the-cuff discussion of “loosening” regs for small cars during Trump’s kei remarks, until that becomes official, there are few ways to sell a non-NTSHA compliant vehicle. One is as a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV), a BEV limited to 25 mph and subject to various state restrictions. Most states allow them and require a driver’s license to operate them. NEVs have limited appeal in certain markets. The Topolino is adorable, but how it’d mesh with the NEV market here, and the business case for it, is unclear.
It could also be classified as an off-highway vehicle, not subject to safety rules beyond state requirements (like a fitting a spark arrestor on gas-powered ATVs). There are a few areas, on the county or community level, in which some ATVs can be driven on the road. But can you imagine Oliver Francois making a big announcement in a press release that he’s going to bring the Fiat Topolino over just to sell in a couple of states and a smattering of localities. (Yes. -Ed)
It’s an absurd exercise to have to talk through these two possibilities. How can there be a business case for a product with such a limited market—both in terms of size and in terms of how it can be used?
Maybe Francois has solid inside info about changes to NHTSA requirements that haven’t made it out to the media yet, and the Topolino is angling for first mover advantage. My theory is it’s a calculated announcement, not necessarily a calculated product plan. Fiat needs some attention in America, with its one-vehicle lineup and minuscule sales. Fiat parent Stellantis reported a total of 321 Fiat vehicles sold in the US in Q3 2025. Thirty-one of those were Fiat 500x SUVs, which were discontinued for the 2023 model year.
That said, Fiat really has been bringing a Topolino to US auto shows for quite a while now, Rory and Fern got to sit in one in LA, weeks before tiny cars entered the discourse.
And after all, I’m writing about the Fiat Topolino—a car I love for its weird exuberance, its friendly affect, not its practicality in this market—and so the announcement at least got my attention.
I wonder if it was calculated to get anyone else’s attention. And perhaps some political credit, to be spent later, in an environment where things are highly transactional.
Stranger things have happened.
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