The Fiat Grande Panda Is a Cheery Metropolis EV

Storytelling. That’s what Fiat CEO Olivier Francois says separates Fiat from the wave of reasonably priced new (principally) Chinese language EVs. He’s fairly the raconteur himself, has an Instagram teeming with A-list contacts, and cheerfully admits that the brand new Grande Panda must be a blockbuster.

“Heritage is key,” he explains. “Our design is rooted in our heritage, and that’s not by chance. It’s a good way of reassuring our customers. There are new brands but, hey, they come and they go. We’ve been here for 125 years—and we’re here to stay.”

As with Renault’s rapturously obtained new 5, the Grande Panda pulses with a palpable confidence. With its ’80s video-game-referencing pixel LEDs, chunky stance, and cheery shade scheme (no grey, by order of its maker), the Panda manages to ship a Proustian rush with out wanting lazily retro. Credit score to exterior designer Francois Leboine and his staff, it appears particularly contemporary on easy metal wheels. (Leboine, it’s price noting, did the R5 earlier than leaving Renault.)

“Panda” is inscribed in low aid lettering on the facet, in case you neglect the title of the automobile, and these may be stuffed in with protecting padding. The Fiat brand and four-bar monogram—which arrived 40 years in the past on the Uno—are blended and matched on the seats, door trims, and wheel arch encompass and are laser-etched into the C pillar. Everybody concerned, you sense, has introduced their A sport. Together with these unsung heroes within the product planning division.

Within the UK, costs for the Panda begin at £20,975 for the entry-level Pink model, rising to £24,000 for the top-spec La Prima mannequin. A less expensive, 1.3-liter hybrid can be alongside quickly, however for now the main focus is on the absolutely electrical mannequin, with its circa 200-mile vary. This, then, is the automobile that guarantees to do for the EV what the epochal Nuova 500 did for Italian mass mobility simply as la dolce vita was hovering into view within the late ’50s.

City Utility

Masterful packaging is a part of its DNA, however the unique 1980 Panda is the clearer inspiration for the brand new automobile. That was designed by the maestro Giorgetto Giugiaro, nonetheless alive and using a path bike aged 86, and a person who dismisses his contribution to automotive design as mere “problem solving.”

Nicely, there’s loads of these to avoid on reasonably priced electrical metropolis vehicles. Numerous variations of latest Panda wait within the wings, however the Grande arrives measuring a solitary millimeter shy of 4 meters in size. The unique was really created to imitate the country charms of the Renault 4, and to today 4×4 variations of the Panda may be seen in distant and certainly trendy components of Italy. With no all-wheel-drive model deliberate, Fiat nonetheless leans fairly onerous into the thought of utility on the Panda, with intelligent inside storage areas and barely elevated stance and visibility. A UV BEV. It’d catch on.