Fiat Grande Panda

This one is called the Grande Panda and will arrive first in early 2025. The entire range of Pandas should be in showrooms by 2027.

That Grande name reflects the fact that it’s bigger than you might expect. It’s 3.99-meters long, which is a massive 30cm longer than the outgoing petrol Panda. 

So it’s not a city car to rival the likes of the Dacia Spring and is more ‘supermini’ sized. That means it’s got to compete with the Renault 5,Hyundai Inster and BYD Dolphin. The price will be around £22,000 for the all-electric version – there will be a cheaper hybrid petrol too.

Fiat isn’t ashamed of its heritage and there are plenty of nods to the original boxy Panda from and the later models.

The Grande’s styling is a clever mix of the themes from the original 1980s Panda. Did you know that boxy first generation car was designed by the same man who did the Lotus Esprit, the original Golf and the, er, Ssangyong Rexton? 

In homage to the classic Panda 4x4, the Panda letters are ‘embossed’ on the doors, and it has upright rear lights. 

Practicality & Boot Space

At 3.99-meters long, the Grande is big for a car bearing the Panda name but is fractionally smaller than a hatchback like a Vauxhall Corsa.  It’s slightly taller than average too at 1.57 metres (a Corsa is 1.43m) which means there’s a surprising amount of upright room and it can seat five – unlike the old petrol Panda or Dacia Spring. The boot is big too, at 361 litres. That’s more than the 311 in a Peugeot e-208 and only slightly behind the Volkswagen ID.3’s 385 litres. There’s no frunk, but there’s plenty of space inside the cabin. 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.

Range, Battery & Charging

Under the bodywork, the Grande Panda shares its hardware with the Citroen e-C3. That’s no bad thing as it’s a car we like and helps keep cost low. This means we get a 44kWh battery, giving a range of 195 miles on the official test cycle. It will also have 100kW DC charging capability.

A clever little innovation is the tethered spiral charging cable, which promises to make the experience of plugging in easier and tidier. The Grande Panda is the first vehicle since the Renault Twizy to include an integrated charging cable, which works with AC chargers up to 7 kW. The spiral cable has a special housing in a hatch at the front of the car. This means you dont need to carry a cable around in the boot and it avoids the grime of traditional cables. 

Interior, Design/Styling & 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.

There is also a special homage to Fiat’s 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 for the speed and essential info, plus a 10.25-inch touchscreen for the wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, both hark back to the shape of the track. 

Motors and Performance 

As the Grande Panda shares its hardware with the Citroen e-C3 and Vauxhall Frontera, the Panda will have just 111bhp, giving an estimated 0-60mph time of around 12 seconds. That’s better than the originals but expect it to feel lethargic when there are five people and their luggage on board. 

We can’t tell you how it drives yet, but expect Fiat to put its own spin on the chassis tuning so it feels a little keener and more lively that the Citroen.

The bad news is there will be no 4x4 version planned, despite these butch looks. There are expected to be all-wheel-drive versions of the other Panda models though, using the hybrid system used in the Jeep Avenger 4xe.

If you don’t want an electric version then there is a petrol-powered mild hybrid on offer, but the price is only £1,000 less than the full electric. 

Running Costs & Pricing

The Grande Panda will start at just under £22,000, which is identical to the Citroen e-C3 and a hugely competitive for a spacious electric car with almost 200 miles of range. 

The official ‘consumption’ figures suggest the Grande Panda will achieve around 4.4 miles per kWh which is great by some standards but is being overtaken quickly by some rivals. It seems a big boxy car with only 111bhp might mean it has to work hard and that affects efficiency.

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

Will this new Fiat pander to your every need? It looks funky and high tech while managing to be retro at the same time, although us Brits don’t tend to have the same passion for the original boxy Panda from the 1980s as the Italians. 

But that boxiness means there’s much more room than you’d expect in a car of this size. The price is surprisingly low too and it should cost buttons to run. 

If Fiat make it fun to drive too, it could be a real winner. 

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