Fiat CEO Olivier Francois has confirmed the brand will bring the tiny, all-electric Topolino to the United States. Unveiled alongside Brazilian neo-pop artist Romero Britto at his colossal studio, the special art-edition Topolino certainly looks unique. But underneath the Britto veneer, the vehicle is merely a re-badged Citroen Ami. A vehicle designed specifically for cramped European city centers.
Its diminutive size and paltry performance mean the Topolino cannot be certified as a regular car in the US. Instead, Fiat must classify it under the federal Low-Speed Vehicle (LSV) standard. This designation is the key to legality on public roads, but it comes with crippling limitations. A top speed greater than 20 mph, but strictly no more than 25 mph.
LSVs are typically banned entirely from public roads where the speed limit exceeds 35 mph. This effectively rules out any meaningful use beyond residential or industrial parks in a country built for the Interstate.
Under the skin, the Topolino is truly minimal. It’s significantly smaller than even Japan’s best-selling Kei car like the the Honda N-Box, measuring only 2,535 millimeters long. Powering this tiny frame is a meager 6 kW electric motor, putting out just 8 HP. That motor is connected to a small 5.4 kWh battery pack, yielding a World Test Cycle driving range of a mere 46 miles.
While the Topolino (and its Stellantis cousins, the Citroen Ami and Opel Rocks) dominates the European quadricycle market, with Italy being the biggest customer, logging 2,818 registrations in the first half of 2025, it struggles when compared to proper BEVs like the Tesla Model Y. Given the fundamental restrictions of the LSV class, Fiat should realistically brace for extremely limited US sales. Americans are simply not accustomed to paying real money for a vehicle banned from any road where you can safely accelerate past a bicycle.
