Fiat Grande Panda review

The Grande Panda is an excellently low-cost and practical supermini – petrol or electric – with pretty special design. In a world where superminis are getting very little love from the manufacturers, that's a win.

The general aspect nods towards crossovers, and the detailing is heartwarming and original. All of which applied to the original Panda in 1980. This is a return for Fiat to doing what it has always done best.

It comes in as the cheapest electric supermini you can buy in Britain, starting at £20,975. There will soon be a version with the very usable Stellantis system of turbo triple petrol engine and six-speed electrically assisted twin-clutch auto transmission. It starts £2k below the pure-electric.

The electric is the first one we've tested. That gets you 111bhp, and 199 miles of WLTP range, or 150 miles on our test route that included city, suburbs and Italian motorway on a cold day.

Pandas are baby cars. Explain the Grande bit.…

It's bigger than any Panda so far, within 1mm of 4 metres long. In fact it's not actually a replacement for the gen-3 Panda that has just shuffled off sale in Britain but continues in Italy and other places.

Yes, that old Panda will actually itself be replaced in a few years, Fiat bosses have told us. Colloquially known in Italy as Pandina, bless, that's a very small car.
Whereas the Grande Panda is bigger: supermini-sized. Albeit at the small end of the supermini spectrum. At the bigger end of the supermini spectrum, and with mildly posher but more generic fixtures, look to the 600. Oh and for a posher baby-car Fiat, there's the 500. Fiat's specialist subject, now as ever, is small cars.

Talk about the design.

Here's a thing. It was done by Fiat's design chief Francois Leboine. Immediately before coming to Fiat he was in Renault's advanced design team and made the model that became the Renault 5. Quite a talent then.

The Grande Panda isn't retro but does have the vibe of Giugiaro's original 1980 Panda: a boxy outline, flat surfaces, practical plastic protection, and inside a shelf-like dash.

Fiat thinks you'll love this car for its Fiat-ness, so has embossed its name and monogram (four diagonal bars) all over the place: seats, door trims, rear pillar. It's even stamped the letters P A N D A into the doors, which isn't pointless as it makes those panels more rigid.

Inside, the binnacle surround is the same shape as the banked track on the roof of the historic Lingotto factory. The pixel-like lights and square vents are supposed to remind us of that building's windows. Which is a stretch.

Even on the base version, colours in the cabin are bright and cheery, and why not if blue plastic and lime-green stitching costs the same as dark grey.

Right, so it looks fun. Is it fun for the driver?

It has a cheery way of going down the road. It's likely to be used for local running, mostly towns and B-roads, which in turn means potholes and bumps. The suspension is absorbent enough that they don't slow you down or upset your equilibrium.

It's agile and doesn't have that stolid weighty feel of too many electric cars. Performance is quick-witted if not quick. For more details click on the Driving tab of this review.

What about for everyone else? Will they fit?

There's just room for adults in the back. Three across if absolutely needed, because the shoebox shape gives plenty of shoulder and head room.

There's lots of space for odds 'n' ends in the cabin, even if it's mostly in bins without liners so everything will slide about and rattle at every turn.

One practical touch is the charge cable, which is a captive sprung spiralised job – yes, like a vacuum cleaner – hidden behind the Fiat logo in the nose. So no need to carry it in the boot, and no need to worry if it gets wet or mucky. It's 4.5m long so even if you've parked with the charge point near the back of the car it'll reach.

What are the rivals?

In the electric space, the most tempting rival is obviously the Renault 5. The cheapest 5 is slightly less than the dearest Grande Panda. Also in there is the Hyundai Inster, which is £2.5k ish more and a bit less roomy. These small-battery versions of the R5 and Inster have ranges very similar to the Fiat.

The Fiat has a sibling rival, the Citroën ë-C3. Both brands are part of the Stellantis empire and both use the same platform, so there's nothing to choose in size or performance or range, but the Citroen is £1,000 more expensive if you don't haggle. They're not identical twins though. Design, inside and out, has little in common with one another. They also drive slightly differently.

The only Chinese-made EVs that are cheaper are the Dacia Spring and Leapmotor T03 and they're considerably smaller, slower and less rangey.

The petrol Panda faces off against the petrol C3 too, but Fiat has chosen to use a mild-hybrid auto whereas the Citroën is a manual. We like the little Suzuki Ignis and Toyota Aygo X and they've got the same sort of bouncy crossover vibe as the Grande Panda.

The Dacia Sandero is a fabulously smart if pretty boring buy, ditto the MG 3. Most other superminis are generic and more expensive – the Skoda Fabia starts at £2k more and it too is a manual. So too are Stellantis's mainstream superminis including the Vauxhall Corsa and Peugeot 208. The Kia Picanto and Hyundai i10 are noticeably smaller and tighter inside.

The Grande Panda electric is cheap, and in some ways it feels it. The dash is made of hard plastic stuff and the basic version – the only one you should buy in our view – has white steel wheels… like a £65k Land Rover Defender. And the design of the cabin is original, funky and honest about its substance.

For that low price you get comfort, decent space, and surprisingly refined dynamics. It absolutely covers off the essentials.

So the Grande Panda finds itself a unique spot on the price-value curve. It could have been called a success even if it had done that with dull, stony determination. Instead it has a cheery countenance and knowing sense of heritage. We like.