Alternative Geneva
At the same time as Renault presented its new fifth in Geneva, Fiat released a video in which they presented their five new cars.
– Welcome to our Ginevra, said Olivier Francois when he invited into the video which will give us an impression of what Fiat will serve us in the future.
They had constructed a fictional Italian city, Ginevra, as a proper backdrop for Fiat’s latest city car – the upcoming Panda.
But it’s not a Panda like the old one. Maybe that’s the one you’re thinking of? This one is bigger, obviously built to the 2024 standard and is meant for streets and roads all over the world, said Francois who emphasized that now they had a truly global platform.
– No matter where one of our cars is constructed, it will be able to be built anywhere in the world and reach customers anywhere.
He also emphasized all types of powertrains and extensive use of sustainable materials (bomb!) and made the point that functionality is also spelled with FUN.
– Never functionality without fun, he said.
Mega Panda
All this to show pictures of what he claims is the upcoming Panda – or rather call it MegaPanda – which will be shown this summer in connection with Fiat’s 125th anniversary. And from the Panda starting point, he talked about four other models that will also appear in the coming years.
The car we see now has absolutely nothing to do with the “old” Centoventi project.
It is closer to the electric Panda we showed renderings of last autumn and looks even more off-road. At the same time, it has brought with it some fun design tricks from the 80s and uses much of the Lingotto factory’s architecture as inspiration for, among other things, the steering wheel and dashboard.
Synergies
The change in relation to 2019 is completely natural, because when the Centoventi was presented five years ago, Fiat had no Stellantis resources to lean on, as they have now.
It is said that here it is Citroën’s C3 that lies below – a car that was originally developed for India and Latin America, but which has now obviously set its sights on becoming Europe’s cheapest electric car as well.
There are many details missing on the final C3, but it is obvious that they are aiming for a starting price of 20,000 euros.
It’s likely that the new Panda will end up at a little more than that, but not by much.
But for now there is no data on this car at all, even though it is only four months away from the presentation.
(the story continues below the video)
Extended family
On the other hand, we see in the video from Olivier Francois that we – or at least South America where the Strada Pickup is the best seller – will get a son-of-Panda with a double cabin and layout.
But when he calls it the Giga-Panda and hints that it could also come to Europe, perhaps it sounds more like a Dacia Duster competitor?
The Fiat Fastback is also a success in South America (and like the Tipo in the Middle East and Africa) which will now come in a new form, based on this new Panda family.
Dynamics and performance to a greater extent than for the Panda, but still with all the rational arguments intact.
There will of course also be an SUV – you don’t drop the most popular body shape if you are going to build a volume model – and the last in the family will be a Camper.
A kind of all-in-one car like the original Panda really was. City car, 4×4, van, MPV, off-roader.
But as I said – we’ll probably have to wait until the 125th anniversary before we can say anything more concrete. Now, however, at least we know that something is happening.
