Fiat Grande Panda Review

This is the first Grande Panda ever. We’ve had the Fiat Grande Punto before, but not the Fiat Grande Panda. At 3.99m long and 1.57m tall, it’s still a small car – and a very similar size to the Citroen C3 and another recent reborn icon, the Renault 5 – but it’s also some 30cm longer than the outgoing Panda. 

The chunkier stance and SUV-ish attitude has earned it the ‘Grande’ bit in front of the Panda, and to our eyes that’s no bad thing as it looks pretty brilliant. You can still clearly see that this new electric Panda has its roots firmly in the honest and generally brilliant Panda city car that’s graced European cities, towns (and even the rural and mountainous bits in between) since the original arrived in 1979.  

It's available with a 44kWh lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery, which is good for a 199 mile WLTP range, and I’ve been out in Italy for a drive. So let’s get on with finding out if this thing is as good to drive and live with, as it is to look at!  

Range, battery and charging  

Like I said (pay attention at the back…) the new Fiat Grande Panda gets a 44kWh lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery, which is good enough for a combined WLTP figure of 199 miles. Don’t worry about the LFP battery tech, by the way; it’s very common battery tech, and some might argue is actually more resilient to fast charging and heavy use than the more common li-ion NMC batteries. You can read all about the pros and cons of LFP vs NMC batteries, right here. 

Real world range? Well, we didn't get a whole lot of time with the car, and the Panda doesn’t come with a heat pump (which I think we can all agree is fine, given that this is such an affordable EV). We'd estimate that you'll see around 140 miles in winter running, or that’ll go up to about 180-ish in the summer. That’s much the same range as the Citroen e-C3 and small battery Renault 5 E-Tech that are the main alternatives to the Panda.

Rapid charging speeds peak at 100kW, but with this being a fairly small battery you’ll get a 10-80% charge in around 20 minutes. 

A clever little innovation is the 4.5m tethered spiral charging cable, which promises to make the experience of plugging in easier and tidier, as you don’t need to carry a cable around in the boot and it avoids the grime of traditional cables. The Grande Panda is the first vehicle since the Renault Twizy to include an integrated charging cable, which works with any home car charger, and public AC charging stations up to 7 kW. The spiral cable has a special housing in a hatch at the front of the car, while rapid charging happens via a normal CCS socket in the rear wing. 

Practicality and boot space 

The Grande Panda can seat five people (unlike the Dacia Spring and Hyundai Inster, for instance) at a squeeze, or a couple of adults will be alright in the back, even if taller people might have their knees brushing the seats in front. Not bad for a little car, though, eh?  

The boot is big, too, at 361 litres. That’s bigger than the boot in the Renault 5, Hyundai Inster and Peugeot e-208 and only slightly behind the Volkswagen ID.3’s 385 litres. The rear seats fold flat, and leave a bit of a step up from the boot floor, but at this sort of price I’m certainly not bothered about that, and I doubt most of you lot will be, either.

There’s no frunk in the Fiat Grande Panda, but there are 13 litres of storage in the dashboard, three litres of which are found in just one compartment. Fiat says this harks back to the original Panda’s “hammock” dashboard.

Interior, design and technology 

It’s not what you’d call a retro design, but the new Panda’s interior has obvious links to the boxy original. In particular, the two-spoke steering wheel, extended instrument pod and hammock style dashboard storage. 

Even the square grid pattern on the seats is carried over, but thankfully the modern car’s are more supportive and comfortable. I really like the seats, actually; they’re properly cushy and soft, which I appreciated on our trek around Turin.

There is also a special homage to Fiat’s historic Lingotto factory rooftop test track, which was made famous in the ‘Italian Job’ film. The dashboard frame, including a 10-inch instrument cluster in front of the driver, plus a 10.25-inch touchscreen for the wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, both hark back to the shape of the track. 

All the little details in the car are really appealing I think. Maybe some people will find it a bit too extrovert and cutesy, but I’m a bit bored of cars feeling very samey and I think the Fiat Panda’s shapes, colours and cheerful little ‘Ciao’ moniker make it feel rather sweet. I kind of want to take it home and give it a plate of milk and a cuddle.  

Motors, performance and handling 

Or, at least, I did until I realised how slow it is. The Grande Panda gets 110bhp and will do 0-62mph in 11.0sec (or 11.5sec in the La Prima), and it’s fine in everyday stuff but it can feel pretty slow if you do want to get a move on. It doesn’t have that instant urgency that you get in a lot of EVs, and it’s not a patch on the Renault 5 for performance and fun-factor, in terms of driving. 

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not unpleasant. The Citroen e-C3 isn’t much faster, if at all, but peculiarly the power delivery felt better in that and I didn’t feel like I had to wait for it to get going, like I did with the Panda. 

Still, it is fine in normal stuff, and it feels composed and secure, with light steering so that it’s peachy for flinging around roundabouts and into tight spaces. That’s all just as convenient as you’d hope. Although brake regen’ is very mild, and even if you put it in ‘B’ mode for heavier regenerative braking, it’s still a long way off a one-pedal mode like you get in the Hyundai Inster. 

Ride comfort is good. This is a fairly light car, so it does feel a touch choppy over bumps and ruts, but the suspension sponges up the worst of the road surface nicely. It’ll be even better if you go for the 16-inch steel wheels (which you can have even on the La Prima model that I drove in Italy). Our test car came on 17-inch alloy wheels, but I’m a huge fan of those steel wheels.  Check them out here, on this Grande Panda Red, which’ll be available in the UK and which I think looks seriously cool. 

Running costs and pricing 

Now this is where the Grande Panda really shines. Prices start from under £21,000 in the UK for the Grande Panda Red, which is very impressive and makes the Renault 5 and Hyundai Inster look positively pricey. Especially as you get the white steel wheels, reversing sensors, cruise control and air-con. The La Prima adds front sensors and reversing camera, textile finish on the dash, and an upholstery upgrade among other additions.

Monthly costs haven’t been confirmed yet, but they’ll be crucial to the Grande Panda’s success. 

There’s a three year, 60,000 mile warranty on the car, while the battery is covered for eight years and 100,000 miles. That’s standard stuff, and is easily beaten by the Chinese and Korean competition

Verdict  

The Fiat Grande Panda is cute and great value. It’s nothing special to drive, but it does the job, and that’s all that most people will expect of it. I really do wish that the La Prima that we drove was a bit quicker, but maybe the Red (which is a fraction quicker) will solve that! More than that, it’s practical, cute and the price is seriously tempting. Monthly prices will dictate how well no doubt dictate how well it does, so let’s wait and see if the low list price translates to some cheap monthly deals.

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