The Panda’s ‘simple, cheap and clever’ philosophy continues in a new era – but with an electric option
Darren Moss darren.moss@haymarket.com
LATE 2024
IF CHEAP IS cheerful, the new Fiat Panda should be a car with more potential to make you happy than almost anything else you can buy.
Aiming to recapture the simple yet clever philosophy that has helped the first three generations of the Panda to sell in large numbers since 1980, the new iteration will take inspiration from 2019’s Centoventi concept car, which first showed how a low-cost reinvented Panda might look in the age of electric cars.
Some of the concept’s features, such as its minimalist dashboard and removable passenger seat, could remain for the car you’ll see in showrooms. But other elements, such as swappable batteries that could be replaced at dealerships in less than five minutes, won’t make it into production.
At the time of its unveiling, Fiat officials hoped that being able to swap a battery quickly and easily could make up for a relatively short range; indeed, entry-level versions of the Centoventi would have offered just 62 miles of range.
To help keep costs down, the new Panda instead uses the same underpinnings as the larger Fiat 600, Jeep Avenger and Peugeot e-2008. If the Panda has the same motor and battery combination as those stablemates, it’ll come with a single 154bhp electric motor and a 51kWh (usable capacity) battery that promises a range of up to 250 miles. That’s farther than upcoming rival small electric cars such as the Citroën e-C3 and Dacia Spring can manage.
While the electric Panda will be priced to undercut the C3 and Spring, a headline-grabbing price of just £13,000 will be reserved for petrol-engined versions.
In this form, the Panda is expected to utilise the same 99bhp 1.2-litre petrol engine that already features in the Avenger, and which includes mild hybrid assistance to help lower your fuel bills – an idea that s
