The new FIAT Panda will arrive in 2030 and will be sold alongside the Grande Panda

FIAT’s success came thanks to the launch of vehicles designed for the city and made so that everyone could have a car without having to invest a lot of money in buying it. The FIAT 500 and the FIAT Panda were hits in their day and although it seemed they no longer had anything to offer the market, they returned as updated cars ready to face new challenges.

And we have news about the generational renewal of the Panda, which seems set to take place in 2030. This will see it reach its fourth generation and be modernised so it can be sold in the new decade. The third generation of the Panda was launched in 2012 and has been available across Europe ever since. For its 2030 version it will feature both hybrid and electric variants, adapting to the reality of that complex decade ahead.

You might think the Panda is going to be replaced by the Grande Panda, but this is confirmed not as a replacement for the city model, but as a slightly larger model that sits one step higher than the model it is based on. So the successor, as announced, will be this new generation of the Panda.

The inspiration for the new FIAT Panda will be the classic Panda of the 1980s. So it will not be a smaller version of the Grande Panda, but will have its own distinctive features that bring it closer to the original model.

To shape it, the STLA City platform will be used, which has been created for FIAT and is different from the known Smart Car and STLA Small architectures, which are currently the most widely used by Stellantis for this type of vehicle. This platform is currently used on the FIAT 500e and will also underpin the FIAT 500 Ibrida, due out in 2025. The next generation of the 500, which is also under development, will likewise be built on this FIAT platform.

Both models will remain in production in Italy, an unavoidable condition for two Italian classics. The FIAT Panda will be built at the Pomigliano plant, while the FIAT 500 will be assembled at the Mirafiori plant.

The Panda range wants to grow

Yes, the Panda range is set to grow, but not in size, rather in variety. FIAT models will not exceed 4.5 metres in length, so as not to compete with other Stellantis models, such as those produced by Citroën. That said, over the last few years several concepts based on the Panda have been developed, and some of them are expected to reach the market.

Some of these will be based on the Smart Car platform, used by models such as the FIAT Grande Panda, the Citroën C3 and the Opel Frontera. It is compatible with combustion, hybrid and electric engines, which gives great versatility to the models that use it.