More images and details have been revealed by Carrozzeria Castagna, illustrating the Milanese coachbuilder's latest extravagant, luxurious and technically innovative project, the electric-powered Fiat 500-based 'Tender Two'.

More images and details have been revealed by Carrozzeria Castagna, illustrating the Milanese coachbuilder's latest extravagant and luxurious project, the Fiat 500-based 'Tender Two'. Designed as a modern day fashionable interpretation of the famous historical Fiat 500 and 600 'Jolly', it will serve very capably as a distinctive yacht tender or estate runabout.

Since the world launch of the Car of the Year award winning Fiat 500 last summer, Europe's leading coachbuilders and tuners have lined up to reinterpret the car, but none have come close to the efforts that Castagna's craftsmen have put into creating the 'Tender Two'. Castagna already has its own styling and tuning package for the Fiat 500 on the market, consisting of body enhancements and a supercharging conversion for the 1.4-litre engine; now the firm goes a big step further, and drafts in the experience and bold ideas seen already on its Mini-based Tender.

To create this up-to-date 'Jolly' successor Castagna has removed the production car's roof, tailgate and doors, and built up the sill height to cover the bulky new strengthening sections required. The back seat and boot area becomes a usefully sized cargo stowage area which has a varnished wooden floor with thin steel runners. The frame around the rear aperture is finished in this polished teak, and it extends over the now shortened tops of the C-pillars and down along the sill tread plate and up the A-pillar to the front screen. The cargo area has a vertical wicker flap at the rear and the sides feature oddments stowage nets.

The wicker effect is continued on the seat uprights and on the new stainless steel roll-over hoops that are required due to the removal of the roof. The 'Tender Two' features a canvas cover which is attached to the windscreen top and suspended on two thin poles at the C-pillar, carefully mimicking the historic Ghia-built Jolly. A special 'Tender Two' badge features on the dashboard (in place of the production car's usual '500' logo) and on the new wooden rear bumper finisher.

Underneath the bonnet the 'Tender Two' is powered by a new electric unit developed by Swiss company MES-DEA, which already produces electric versions of the Renault Twingo and Fiat Panda for the Swiss and Italian markets. It is claimed that 'Tender Two' will have a top speed of 130 km/h, and a range of 140 kilometres. The time to recharge the battery to 80 percent is 4 hours, and the driver receives detailed data regarding battery charge and temperature through a new LCD screen mounted on the centre of the dashboard. The 'Tender Two' will be commercialised before the end of this year.