Storytelling. That’s what Fiat CEO Olivier Francois says separates Fiat from the wave of affordable new (mostly) Chinese EVs. He’s quite the raconteur himself, has an Instagram teeming with A-list contacts, and cheerfully admits that the new Grande Panda needs to be a blockbuster.
“Heritage is key,” he explains. “Our design is rooted in our heritage, and that’s not by chance. It’s a good way of reassuring our customers. There are new brands but, hey, they come and they go. We’ve been here for 125 years—and we’re here to stay.”
As with Renault’s rapturously received new 5, the Grande Panda pulses with a palpable confidence. With its ’80s video-game-referencing pixel LEDs, chunky stance, and cheery color scheme (no gray, by order of its maker), the Panda manages to deliver a Proustian rush without looking lazily retro. Credit to exterior designer Francois Leboine and his team, it looks especially fresh on simple steel wheels. (Leboine, it’s worth noting, did the R5 before leaving Renault.)
“Panda” is inscribed in low relief lettering on the side, in case you forget the name of the car, and these can be filled in with protective padding. The Fiat logo and four-bar monogram—which arrived 40 years ago on the Uno—are mixed and matched on the seats, door trims, and wheel arch surround and are laser-etched into the C pillar. Everyone involved, you sense, has brought their A game. Including those unsung heroes in the product planning department.
In the UK, prices for the Panda start at £20,975 for the entry-level Red version, rising to £24,000 for the top-spec La Prima model. A cheaper, 1.3-liter hybrid will be along soon, but for now the focus is on the fully electric model, with its circa 200-mile range. This, then, is the car that promises to do for the EV what the epochal Nuova 500 did for Italian mass mobility just as la dolce vita was hovering into view in the late ’50s.
Urban Utility
Masterful packaging is part of its DNA, but the original 1980 Panda is the clearer inspiration for the new car. That was designed by the maestro Giorgetto Giugiaro, still alive and riding a trail bike aged 86, and a man who dismisses his contribution to automotive design as mere “problem solving.”
Courtesy of Alberto Gandolfo/FIAT
Well, there’s plenty of those to circumvent on affordable electric city cars. Various versions of new Panda wait in the wings, but the Grande arrives measuring a solitary millimeter shy of four meters in length. The original was actually created to mimic the rustic charms of the Renault 4, and to this day 4×4 versions of the Panda can be seen in remote and indeed fashionable parts of Italy. With no all-wheel-drive version planned, Fiat still leans pretty hard into the idea of utility on the Panda, with clever interior storage spaces and slightly elevated stance and visibility. A UV BEV. It might catch on.