One of the oldest cars on sale in Europe, the Fiat Panda has been around in its current iteration since 2011. Thankfully, a replacement is on the way and has been confirmed to debut next year. To be more precise, we’ll see it on July 11, 2024 when the Italian automaker part of the Stellantis automotive conglomerate will celebrate its 125th anniversary. Meanwhile, we’ve decided to unofficially preview the next-gen supermini.
Bear in mind that Fiat has already previewed the fourth iteration of its adorable subcompact car with the Centoventi. However, that concept is already more than four years old, having debuted back in March 2019 at the Geneva Motor Show. It remains to be seen whether some of its design cues will rub off onto the fourth-gen Panda as seen here or it will have a totally different appearance.
Whatever the case may be, our colleagues at Motor1.com Italy are reporting Fiat intends to make the car significantly bigger, possibly stretching to around four meters (157.4 inches). For the sake of comparison, the aging Panda on sale today is less than 3.7 meters long (145.6 in) long. Even with the increased dimensions, the new model will remain smaller than the recently unveiled 600.
Speaking of which, the 2024 Panda is expected to use an adaptation of the same e-CMP2 platform that has underpinned the revival of the Seicento, which itself is mechanically related to the Jeep Avenger and a future equivalent Alfa Romeo model. Fiat will likely promote the fully electric variant but there should also be a mild-hybrid model based around a small gasoline engine. In the case of the Avenger, it can be had with a 1.2-liter, three-cylinder turbocharged mill with 48V tech.
The purely electric Panda is projected to be refreshingly cheap as Fiat CEO Olivier François recently said it’ll retail from less than €25,000. That would make it a desirable alternative to the Dacia Spring but with rugged design cues akin to the Sandero Stepway. While the Centoventi was touted as having a swappable battery, that won’t be the case with the new Panda since the main goal is to keep the EV affordable.
Here’s hoping there will be another all-wheel-drive variant since Fiat has a long tradition of selling AWD-equipped Pandas. Case in point, the new 4×40° special edition celebrates four decades of the all-paw version.
