Easter at Electrifying.com is a time of celebration, but also of reflection. So we took some time to remember our very favourite Easter eggs from the cars of recent years. So happy Easter! Let’s crack on, shall we?
Volvo’s boot diagrams
If you’ve ever wondered how many house plants, floor standing lamps, or oxygen tanks you can fit in the back of your EX30, the Swedes have got you covered.
Each and every Volvo of the past few years has had a diagram moulded into the interior boot panel. On it, are the dimensions of the boot itself, in both inches and metres, as well as some examples of items that will fit in the boot, to the same scale as the car diagram above. Volvo has also pressed the text, “Will it fit?” into the same panel. Sounds like a challenge to me!
It’s well known by now that the Renault 5 has one of the most charming ‘personalities’ in the current car market, with a myriad of ways to pay homage to its 1970s forefather, from accessories emblazoned with “1972” graphics to a gear selector styled to look like a fashionable lipstick case.
Our personal favourite? The optional wicker baguette holder styled after the one in the original R5 – how continental. And no, you don’t strictly have to use it to store long bits of bread. (Sacre bleu!)
Tesla’s emissions testing mode
The undisputed king of party tricks has to be Tesla. It’s almost as if the engineers finished putting a decent car together early and had time to pack their cars chock full of strange time-killers.
They’ve got it all, from a built-in games console to customisable horn sounds and even an ’emissions testing’ mode which amounts to a built-in whoopee cushion. Fart sounds can be assigned to individual seats, or even the indicators. What a load of hot air.
If the R5 was Renault’s first foray into the world of Easter eggs, then its third E-tech vehicle, the new Twingo, has taken things to the eggstreme.
For starters, there are countless nods to the original 1993 Twingo. Its little face peeks out at you from the top of the central display and on the gauge cluster on startup. It also features a similar prominent hazard lights switch as well as the same three strakes on the top farside corner of the bonnet. Only this time, one of those strakes gives you access to your coolant overflow tank.
The Jeep Avenger is really proud of its Jeep heritage. So much so, it has had a graphic of the original Jeep’s grille emblazoned on it in several places, prominent and subtle.
The most obvious instance is a stainless steel badge that sits on the grille of the Avenger for a bit of grille-ception. You’ll also find one on each wheel, and the central part of the dashboard.
Further nods to Jeep’s adventuring past can be found on the windscreen surrounds, front and rear, with an astronomer looking to the stars in the front glass, and a mountain range in the rear. So tall is the latter that it bends the elements for the heated rear windscreen ever so slightly.
Fiat 500e and its Cinquecento past
Stellantis has another entry in this list in the form of the Fiat 500e – Jeep and Fiat part of the same family, eh? Would love to be a fly on the wall at that Easter Sunday dinner.
The 500 has been Fiat’s bestselling model in the UK almost since its reintroduction in 2007. It’s also been a success story for the Italian brand since the late 1950s. All this is to say, there’s a rich history for the 500e to draw from and plenty of fan service to be had.
To wit, a tricolore above each front wheel arch, the outline of the Turin skyline on the wireless charging pad beneath the dashboard, and Ginny’s favourite: a graphic of an original Cinquecento along with the text “MADE IN TORINO” secreted away inside an interior door pull.
