Fiat bet small on the Topolino, and that bet is paying off as the automaker shipped 300 of its electric microcars to US dealers as a test run, and most are already gone.

That's a notable clearance rate for a two-seat, low-speed vehicle starting around $15,000 that tops out at 25 mph. Fiat isn't calling it a mass-market launch.

Andrew Waterhouse, head of Fiat North America, confirmed the scale of the US trial to Yahoo Finance. "The original shipment was 300 units, the majority of those have already been sold," he said.

Waterhouse described the rollout as deliberately cautious. "We are taking it step by step, because like I said, it is kind of an experiment," he said. Fiat isn't pitching the Topolino as a replacement for a conventional car. It's a way to see if Americans will treat a golf-cart-style EV as a serious purchase.

Sixty percent of US buyers picked the open-air Dolce Vita version, the trim without doors or a roof. Waterhouse pointed to resort and vacation settings as the natural fit. "The Dolce Vita suits a beach town, gated community resort type experience where you want the open air," he said.

The golf cart comparison isn't accidental. But Waterhouse argued the buyers aren't using it that way.

"Those people are not using golf carts to play golf," he said. " A standard model with full doors and the Open Air version with a retractable fabric roof and ropes for doors round out the lineup. Waterhouse pointed to the closed car as the better fit for city dwellers who want to lock their belongings.

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