Fiat has taken the much-loved 1956 Multipla, squeezed it down to about the size of an original 500 and made it electric, and if the price lands where the early estimates point, it could be the cheapest way to get four people across town without waiting for a bus.

Fiat’s new Multiplina is a four-seat electric car about three metres long, with a claimed top speed of 55mph, and it’s due on sale in 2028. Fiat hasn’t put a price on it yet, but Auto Express reckons it’ll come in at around £14,000, which would slot it between the £8,995 Topolino and the £18,995 Fiat 500 Hybrid. The catch is that it’s classed as a heavy quadricycle, which comes with much lighter rules than a normal car, and Fiat hasn’t said whether it’ll build one with the steering wheel on the right for British buyers.

We’ll admit our first reaction was a grin, because it looks like something you’d see parked outside a café in Turin in 1960, but the more we read about it the more it looks like a clever bit of thinking from a brand that knows small cars better than almost anyone.

The £14,000 figure is an estimate, so treat it as a guide. Italy’s Il Sole 24 Ore thinks it could sit closer to Topolino money, with options taking it to about €12,000, so the real number could be lower still, and either way it would be one of the cheapest four-seaters you could buy new.

Underneath, it uses a stretched version of the Topolino’s platform with a bigger battery (Fiat hasn’t said how big). That’s what lets it move up a class to the heavy quadricycle rules, which cap top speed at the 55mph Fiat claims, against the Topolino’s 28mph. Fiat hasn’t given a range, but it should comfortably beat the 46 miles the Topolino manages, and the concept has two doors, four seats and little windows that hinge outwards.

What is the Fiat Multiplina based on?

The name and the shape come from the Fiat 600 Multipla of 1956, a tiny people carrier with a flat, upright nose that could seat six in about 3.5 metres and stayed in production until 1967, with around 240,000 sold, according to Autocar. The Multiplina borrows the vertical front, the round headlights and the bubble-shaped profile, and it was first shown as the Quattrolino earlier this year (it was renamed, Auto Express says, because Audi owns the rights to “quattro”).

Most people in Britain will think of a different Multipla, the bug-eyed 1998 MPV with three seats across the front that became a bit of a national joke. Fiat says this one draws on the 1950s original, so don’t expect any of that car’s odd styling, though we suspect the shared name will do Fiat no harm at all when it comes to getting people talking.

Fiat boss Olivier François calls it “the missing link” between the Topolino and a normal city car, speaking to CAR magazine, and that’s a fair way to describe it.

Is the Fiat Multiplina coming to the UK?

Nothing is confirmed yet. What we do know is that Fiat only opened UK orders for the Topolino this summer, at £8,995, which suggests it thinks there’s a market here for tiny electric cars, though it has also said some Topolino versions won’t come to Britain, so there are no guarantees.

Is the Fiat Multiplina a good city car?

​“I get excited about driving anything wacky and wonderful, and the Multiplina is both,” he says. “Fiat has always been at its best when it builds small cars with a sense of humour, and if this arrives at around £14,000 I’d happily have one as a London runabout, as long as Fiat can show me it’ll look after the people inside.”

For London, it makes a lot of sense on paper. You get four seats in something short enough to squeeze into the gaps that most hatchbacks drive straight past, and 55mph is plenty when so much of inner London is now limited to 20mph. Where we’d be less keen is on a fast dual carriageway with lorries thundering past, because a three-metre quadricycle is going to feel very small out there.

The bigger worry is safety. Quadricycles aren’t held to the same crash-test rules as normal cars, and Fiat hasn’t said anything yet about what protection the Multiplina will offer, which is the first thing we’d want to know before putting three passengers in it.

It also has a rival from France. Citroën’s revived 2CV is due around 2028 for similar money, and if that turns up as a full car you can take on the motorway, it’ll be the obvious one to compare this with.

What we like

●       Four seats in a car about three metres long

●       An expected price around £14,000, well under a Fiat 500 Hybrid

●       A top speed of 55mph, so it can keep up on faster town roads

●       Styling that will make people smile

What worries us

●       No UK plans or right-hand drive confirmed yet

●       Quadricycle crash-test rules are much lighter than a normal car’s

●       No range figure yet, and it’s two years away

If Fiat brings the Multiplina to Britain at close to £14,000, it’ll be the most charming way we can think of to move four people around a city, and for a London household that wants a second car for the school run and the shops, we can see the appeal. But it’s a quadricycle, and until we know how it protects the people inside, and whether Citroën’s 2CV arrives as a proper car for similar money, we’d hold off getting excited and keep an eye on both.

If the Multiplina has you wondering whether the family’s second car is still earning its parking space, get a free valuation with Regit and see what it’s worth before 2028 comes round.