The Grande Panda will make its full debut on July 11, when Fiat will celebrate the 125th anniversary of its founding. The cross-hatchback will be the first child of Fiat's new global family of budget cars, which is also expected to include a pickup truck, a lifttek, a crossover and an adventure camper.
The fact that the next generation Fiat Panda will be the founder of a new family of budget cars , Fiat CEO Olivier Francois announced in February this year at the Geneva Motor Show. It is not yet clear whether all members of this family will bear the name Panda with any prefix, but it is clear that they will all have a common style and a common platform.
The manifesto of Fiat's new style was published last year – it is a constructivist aesthetic combined with a modular approach and modern environmentally friendly materials. All models of the new budget family will have the same interior with a front panel reminiscent of the oval track roof of the former Fiat plant in Lingotto (one of the districts of Turin), but the configuration of each car can be customized using add-on modules and interchangeable trim parts.
1/5 
2/5 
3/5 
4/5 
5/5
The Fiat Grande Panda, as it turned out today, with its angularity and squared wheel arches, imitates the first generation Panda hatchback, which entered the market back in 1980 and became one of the most popular and affordable Fiat models in the entire history of the brand. Pixel optics are also inspired by constructivist aesthetics, reminiscent of the windows of the Lingotto factory. Under the headlights on the front you can see inclined lines, that is, the Fiat brand has taken its most recognizable emblem out of the archive, although the main identifier of the brand remains the large letters Fiat. In turn, the name Panda is stamped in large letters on the sides and in voluminous font on the tailgate and roof rails. The overall length of the Grande Panda is only 3.99 m, while a full 5-seater interior and a fairly spacious trunk are promised.
Fiat Grande Panda on the roof of the Lingotto plant. By the early 80s, this plant was outdated, in 1982 it was closed and gradually turned into a kind of house of culture for Fiat: today the gigantic complex houses concert halls, restaurants, an art gallery, a hotel, a shopping center and other public spaces. The latest upgrade of the complex was completed last year: the roof of the main building with a track was turned into the largest hanging garden in Europe.
By the way, patent images of the new Panda that surfaced on the Internet in February of this year, as it turned out, have nothing to do with the real model – this is either an old design option, or, less likely, this is some other Fiat model, the premiere of which is still ahead.
The Stellantis press service has not yet announced anything about the Grande Panda platform and its future relatives, but it has long been known from unofficial sources that this is a budget global Smart Car platform, the first-born of which is the new Citroen C3. In technical terms, the Fiat Grande Panda is as unified as possible with the European version of the “French”; the range will include both fully electric and “hydrocarbon” versions. The Grande Panda for Europe will be produced at the Stellantis plant in the Serbian city of Kragujevac. In addition to Europe, Grande Panda's debut markets will be Africa and the Middle East. Other details will probably have to wait until July 11.
1/3 
2/3 
3/3
New budget family Fiat is aiming to compete with the Dacia brand, which belongs to the Renault Group. Outside of Europe, the Dacia brand is practically unknown; in South America and other developing countries, its models are sold under the Renault brand. Fiat is simpler in this sense, everyone knows it everywhere.
We would like to add that the previous third-generation Panda hatchback, which has been in production since 2011, is not yet going to retire: it recently underwent another update and in this form it will remain in service at least until 2027.
Recent Comments