Electric car or hybrid: Fiat presents Grande Panda
Fiat debuts the Grande Panda for its 125th anniversary. The compact crossover, sharing Citroën C3 tech, will serve as a platform for multiple variants.
(Image: Stellantis)
- Wolfgang Gomoll
The fact that an almost four-metre-long crossover is being presented for Fiat's anniversary on 11 July 2024 instead of a smart city runabout because something like this currently has better sales prospects, shows that there is no room for such tradition-conscious sentimentality in the profit-oriented world of the Stellantis Group. The Panda definitely has nothing in common with the low-cost car of 1983, which at the time offered no more than a duck or a Beetle. The angular design of the five-seater largely corresponds to that of the study presented by Fiat in February of this year. The Grande Panda plays the SUV card in an emphatically angular and robust manner, including flared wheel arches with 17-inch alloy wheels.
Battery-to-body integration
The upcoming Panda shares the STLA Smart Stellantis platform, a further development of the CMP Smart Car platform, with the almost identically long Citroën (ë-) C3. An important difference compared to the previous architecture is that the battery is integrated into the vehicle floor (battery to body) on the newer platform and not, as previously, parts of the battery are located on the rear axle.
(Image: Stellantis)
Initially, a hybrid drive and a battery-electric version will be offered. The hybrid corresponds to the 74 kW drive known from the Jeep Avenger e-Hybrid. The electric Grande Panda is likely to get the electric motor with 83 kW and a torque of 125 Nm, which is also used in the Citroën ë-C3.
Colorful bouquet of global derivatives
STLA Smart enables different sizes and different drive forms. So BEV, MHEV or the gas drive, which is important for Latin America. The derivatives should also find buyers in the Middle East and Africa, including a pick-up and a sleek hatchback saloon as the successor to the Fiat Tipo or the Fiat Fastback for Brazil. An SUV called "Panda XL" is probably inevitable, but there will also be a camper van version in the format of the VW Bulli. The Panda in its familiar form will initially continue to be produced in parallel until 2027. The start of sales and price for the upcoming model are not yet known.
(mack)