New Fiat Grande Panda Hybrid 2025 review: spacious supermini is far from efficient

Verdict

When it comes to the Fiat Grande Panda Hybrid – claimed to be 'Pandastic' by '90s rapper Shaggy – I’m not entirely ‘Mr Lover Lover’. That’s down to the way it drives: the ride lacks finesse and fuel consumption disappointed on the launch. Other aspects? The interior and exterior design are irresistible, the cabin and boot spacious for a supermini and the pricing is great value, making the rest an absolute smash hit.

Fiat has remixed its blocky, 1980s Panda city car into this bigger Grande Panda, which we’re driving for the first time in ‘Hybrid’ petrol/electric form. 

It combines a 1.2-litre petrol engine and an electric motor, powered by a small battery. There’s no need (or capability) to plug in, making it a hassle-free hybrid and a challenger for cars such as the Toyota Yaris Cross and the Kia Stonic.

Be gentle with the throttle and the motor can sail the Grande Panda up to around 20mph, then the three-cylinder engine rumbles discreetly to life. So the 28bhp e-motor is good for emissions-free gentle runs, manoeuvring or motorway coasting, but its biggest asset is assisting the petrol engine to boost acceleration and reduce consumption.

The 109bhp Grande Panda Hybrid is not a quick car (the 0-62mph run takes 10 seconds), but counterintuitively it never feels slow. The standard dual-clutch automatic helps, shifting smoothly and rapidly through the gears and blending petrol and electric power to send to the front wheels. It can be hesitant if traffic makes you come off the throttle then quickly jump back on again, but motorway kickdown is responsive enough and the three-cylinder revs out with a nice metallic warble.  

We drive the hybrid out of Turin atop its craggy roads, along the motorway and up into hilly wine-making country. With its simple twist beam rear suspension, ride comfort is the Grande Panda’s weak spot. The tall, five-door hatch feels jiggly and unsettled around town, and a little stiff and rubbery at high speeds which transmits potholes and bumps into the cabin. Its sister car, the Citroen C3, certainly has a softer ride.

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Otherwise the driver’s touch points feel nice: the crisp brake pedal reassuringly wipes off speed, and the twangy steering is largely well judged. Goldilocks would approve of the weighting (not too heavy, not too light) and the gearing’s equally appropriate, turning in responsively enough without any unwelcome dartiness. If you do chuck the Grande Panda into any bends, it grips pretty well and doesn’t lean too much.

But the Grande Panda isn’t trying to win you over on dynamics, more goofy charm. Which sort of explains why Fiat has reanimated ‘90s rapper Shaggy for the advert, rewriting the ‘Boombastic’ lyrics into ‘Pandastic’. Not so much 'Oh Carolina!' as 'Oh Fiat!' 

Such playfulness peppers the delightful cabin, hidden behind that tough but cute exterior. The twin digital screens’ oval yellow frame is inspired by the Lingotto factory’s rooftop test track, complete with a cornering 2D Grande Panda. The letters FIAT are etched into the door, and contrasting materials – marble-effect plastic, flashes of yellow on the boxy protruding vents – bring oodles of character. There’s no mistaking it for a dour Volkswagen.

This is the flagship La Prima spec, costing £21,035 for the hybrid (or £24,305 for its electric equivalent). The visual centrepiece is the ‘Bambox’, which looks as if a beaver has built a log dam behind the dash, but is actually a cylinder covered in bamboo fibre textile. It’s lovely and functional, containing a nicely engineered storage box.

La Prima rolls on the biggest alloy wheels (17-inchers), adds front parking sensors and a rear-view camera to the lower Pop and Icon models’ rearward monitoring, and is the spec choice for wireless charging, heated seats, navigation on the standard, unflashy touchscreen and automatic air-con. This can be operated by big chunky buttons, and there are switches to toggle lane assist, speed limit and hazard warnings and lock the doors. Otherwise controls are via the steering wheel or touchscreen.

The foamy seats – here wrapped in two-tone upholstery – envelop you like a friendly Italian bearhug. There’s reasonable space for my 6-ft frame behind an identically sized driver, with feet sliding neatly beneath the perch and knees not quite touching the seat back. Headroom is plentiful as you’d expect given Grande Panda’s tallboy silhouette, and underthigh support is good – that’s because without the EV batteries in the floor, the footwells are deeper.

The boot has a tall lip to stow items over, but the 412-litre storage area will sneak 3 or 4 airline carry ons upright beneath the parcel shelf. The rear seats are split 60:40 even on the base £18,035 Pop version, which comes with the digital screens, cruise control, six airbags, lane assist and emergency braking.

We covered just over 90 miles in the new Grande Panda hybrid, mostly in torrential rain and grinding traffic. Thankfully the Fiat isn’t too boombastic on the motorway, although the tyres grumble different basslines depending on the tarmac’s smoothness and a little wind noise whistles along the side. 

Our 46mpg was 9mpg off the official WLTP consumption figure: down to the hybrid or my heavy right foot? In the words of Shaggy: ‘it wasn’t me’.