Yugo is back! And it's bringing the style of the 80s with it

Despite production of the Ford Fiesta and Mazda 2 recently being axed, small cheap cars have been given a lifeline with retro-inspired electric cars like the Renault 5 and Fiat 500e – and looking to join in on this resurgence is a new car from Yugo. 

Yes, that’s Yugo – the brand named after its home nation of Yugoslavia (now Serbia) and built by the now-defunct Zastava Automobiles company. Opening the door for the new model is Dr Alekasandar Bjelić, a university professor who has secured the naming rights to the brand with a new firm, Yugo Automobile. He has also already recruited Serbian designer Darko Marčeta, who has penned what the future Yugo will look like. 

Shown as a 1:5 scale model at Car Design Event in Munich, the new Yugo is clearly inspired by the boxy proportions of the original, which itself was based on the Fiat 127 and 128. But Marčeta’s design brings the Yugo into the 21st century with slim LED lights front and rear, big alloy wheels and flush-fitting door handles. 

Retro touches come in the form of a blocky front grille and an angular rear hatch not dissimilar to that of the Hyundai Ioniq 5; the classic ‘Y’ badge features as well. Unlike the Renault Clio, Toyota Yaris, Renault 5 and Honda Jazz, all of which are five-door-only models, the Yugo will “initially only be available as a two-door model” with “different body versions” possible. 

Positioned as a B-segment, “affordable small car” (a supermini, in other words), the Yugo will come with an internal-combustion engine with a choice of automatic and manual transmissions. This should help keep costs down in the same way as the original, which was one of the cheapest cars on sale in the UK in the eighties. Yugo Automobile also says “electrified versions are possible”, although no technical details have been revealed about an EV variant. 

While the original Yugo was a rather dull, rust-prone creation that made it to the Auto Express list of ‘worst communist cars’, the new model will “meet all relevant safety standards, and it will be a fun-to-drive car”, according to Yugo Automobile. There is no information just yet on what architecture will underpin the new car, but the firm behind the project says it will sit on “an established platform from a cooperation partner”. 

Our first official look at the production-ready Yugo will take place on 15 September this year, with a finished prototype to be shown at the Belgrade Expo in 2027. 

Are you excited to see Yugo return? Let us know in the comments below...