Fiat Grande Panda full details announced: fully-electric model to cost from under €25,000
Fiat’s funky new supermini will launch in electric and hybrid flavours with a funky new look
New technical details, including the first images of the interior, have been revealed of the funky new Fiat Grande Panda. The car, of course, is a remake of the iconic Fiat Panda supermini that’s just as much a part of Italian culture as pizza and pasta.
The all-new model was recently revealed with only limited images of the exterior, and not much else, but on the eve of Fiat’s 125th Anniversary we’ve now been given a much clearer picture of what to expect when it’s put into production later this year. Local UK pricing is yet to be confirmed, but Fiat has announced a sub-25,000 euro price (£21,065) for the electric model, with the mild-hybrid petrol sneaking in under 19,000 euros (£16,000) in Italy.
Chassis and powertrains
As suspected, the new Panda will share all its key underpinnings with models from the Stellantis group on the Smart Car platform, meaning it’ll be available from launch as an electric car or with a mild-hybrid powertrain.
As with its French counterpart, the new Citroen e-C3, Fiat’s electric Grande Panda will feature a 44kWh battery pack that’s capable of a range of up to 198 miles, although this final figure is still to be confirmed in an official WLTP economy rating. No performance figures have yet been revealed, but the Panda won’t be far off the e-C3’s 11-second 0-62mph time and 84mph top speed.
This battery pack powers a front-mounted 111bhp electric motor, driving the front wheels. Despite the front-mounted motor, the Panda will still feature a small 13-litre luggage compartment under the bonnet which is home for the unique spiral charging cable, saving space when stowed.
Alongside the fully-electric model, there will also be a mild-hybrid powertrain option, pairing a 1.2-litre three-cylinder engine with a small electric motor. Power is rated at 99bhp with 120Nm of torque.
Fiat has not announced any potential replacement for the iconic Panda 4x4, but the chances of a direct replacement are slim considering there’s little to no current allowance for an all-wheel drive system to be integrated within Stellantis’s Smart Car platform on which the new Panda is based.
Design and interior
The Grande Panda’s interior has also now been revealed in full, showing off an even more funky look than the exterior. Its design is inspired by the iconic Lingotto factory in Turin, which for many years was Fiat’s headquarters and featured an iconic oval-shaped test track on its roof.
This oval theme is repeated multiple times across the Panda’s interior, paired to a range of contrasting materials including textured fabrics, tinted acrylic and bright plastics. The hero colour combination revealed in the pictures features a striking combination of blue fabric with yellow highlights, inspired by Fiat’s notion that “a Fiat Panda is to the car world, what a pair of blue jeans is to the fashion world”.
The Grande Panda will feature a combination of two digital interfaces, one a 10-inch screen mounted behind the retro-styled two-spoke steering wheel and the other a 10.25-inch touchscreen featuring a completely new control system. There’s ample storage inside the cabin, too, with up to 13 litres of space in various cubbies around the interior.
At just under four metres long, the Grande Panda is around 250mm longer than the previous generation car, which should translate into more passenger and luggage space than in the tight predecessor. Luggage space is rated at 361 litres.
Outside, the Grande Panda’s bold and blocky stance, with its vertical front end and sloped rear windscreen, are all nods to its ancestor famously designed by iconic automotive designer Giorgetto Giugiaro. Despite the Panda being front-wheel drive, there are lots of other references of the more rugged Panda 4x4, including x-pattern alloy wheels, contrasting rubbing strips and the ‘Panda’ lettering debossed into the doors.
The Grande Panda design also borrows a lot from the ‘Mega-Panda’ concept that was revealed earlier in 2024. The square pixel LEDs and X-shaped daytime running light signature are among the details carried over, as well as the Fiat logo being offset on the Grande Panda’s gloss black grille panel and a three-dimensional tail-light design.
New Fiat Panda family
The Grande Panda is the first in a new family of Fiat Panda-inspired models, with Fiat pledging it will launch one new addition every year until 2027. They will all use the same Smart Car platform and design language, and share a common philosophy of “functionality should never exist without fun”.
Based on the other concept cars Fiat unveiled in February alongside the Mega-Panda, the line-up will eventually include a family SUV, a fastback and a campervan, but exactly which of those is arriving next is still unclear.
In an exclusive interview with Auto Express earlier this year, Fiat CEO Oliver François told us that this new model range will “share that approach of practicality, roominess and simplicity, obviously borrowing some of the iconic cues of the Panda of the eighties, that’s for sure.”
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