Replacing the standard radio in the Fiat 500e electric car with a top-of-the-line Pioneer with wireless CarPlay/AndroidAuto

Honestly, this was our first electric car in work. Before that, we had never encountered an electric car, so working with this car was especially interesting.

The Fiat 500e dashboard with a factory radio looked like this before all our modifications:

The kit for replacing the standard Fiat 500e radio includes:

  1. Pioneer AVH-Z9200BT Car Radio – Multifunctional Multimedia Center with Wireless CarPlay and AndroidAuto
  2. The Connects2 CT23FT13 faicia plate is not just a frame, but a kit that consists of a metal shaft, a glossy black frame and air ducts (at the end of this article you will see that in the process of replacing the factory radio in the Fiat 500e, we slightly changed the design of the air ducts to place the radio housing inside the dashboard
  3. CAN-Bus adapter for steering wheel buttons with standard connector for Fiat 500e Connects2 CTSFA021.2

For this car, we specially ordered a frame and adapter directly from the manufacturer through our online store caraudio.in.ua, which is the representative of Connects2 in Ukraine.

We disassemble the dashboard and remove the factory radio:

As you can see, the factory air ducts are positioned horizontally over the factory radio. We will position the air ducts vertically – on the sides of the new radio (all necessary accessories and fasteners for this are included in the Connects2 CT23FT13 adapter frame kit)

First of all, we connect the CAN-Bus adapter Connects2, check the functionality of all factory functions that we could lose after removing the factory radio – this is control from the buttons on the steering wheel of the new car radio, turning the radio on/off from the ignition, “sleeping” the radio, etc.

The next step is to mount the mounting side panels to the Pioneer radio so that it can be securely fastened in the shaft:

We hide all the wiring inside the dashboard, behind the radio housing:

The result is impressive! The Fiat 500e dashboard has been transformed beyond recognition. The functionality of the audio system has expanded significantly.

Compare again how it was BEFORE the replacement and how it became AFTER:

WHERE WE ARE