New baby Fiat ‘Pandina’ to join lineup as an ultra-cheap city car

• New Fiat Pandina city car
• Likely to use a mild-hybrid petrol engine
• Will be just 3,600mm long

With the new Fiat Grande Panda soon to be released into the wild, the Italian brand has confirmed that it’s working on another, even smaller city car called the Pandina. It will sit below the Grande Panda as the brand’s most affordable car, with an efficient mild-hybrid engine and a design honed for Europe’s tight city streets.

Car buyers interested in ultra-affordable city cars better get ready. Fiat’s new baby Panda is just one of several new models on the horizon, with the new Renault Twingo, Volkswagen ID.1 and Dacia’s next EV also lined up to break cover over the next couple of years. While details remain thin on the ground for now, Fiat’s CEO has given us a few clues as to what we can expect from the Pandina, including its design, platform and engine.

What do we know so far about the Fiat Pandina?

During the launch of the Grande Panda, Fiat’s CEO Olivier François explained that the brand “will do an A-segment Panda, maybe not this year, or next, but after that”. We already had our suspicions about a smaller city car, given that the name ‘Grande’ Panda opens the door to a piccola or ‘small’ Panda. From what we understand, this new model is referred to internally as the Pandina.

We also know that it will be 3,600mm long, or around 400mm shorter than the Grande Panda. That immediately rules out the Grande Panda’s underlying ‘Smart Car’ platform, which François explained can’t be used for a car “smaller than four metres”.

Designing a brand new platform from scratch for the Pandina wouldn’t be financially feasible, so it will instead use the same architecture as the electric Fiat 500. It’s a platform that hasn’t been used for anything other than the electric 500 until now, but it’s not quite as straightforward as swapping a new body on top of the 500’s EV underpinnings.

That’s because the new Pandina will arrive as a petrol-hybrid, not as an EV. Fiat is currently developing a new hybrid version of the 500, called the 500 Ibrida, in response to underwhelming sales of the electric version. Describing this new model, François said:

“Customers will get a beautiful, new, modern 500 with the new Ibrida. We needed to replace the old 500. You can only keep putting lipstick on a pig for so long, so we’re excited about bringing this new 500 to a much wider audience.”

It’s a chassis that was never intended to accommodate a petrol-hybrid engine, but all the extra development work going into the 500 Ibrida now has allowed Fiat to create the Pandina. The two cars will be sold side by side, with the Pandina offering a more practical five-door layout versus the 500 Ibrida’s three doors.

What will the Fiat Pandina look like?

Simplicity will be key to the new Fiat Pandina’s design both inside and out, helping to keep costs down. But that doesn’t mean it will be boring – Fiat is likely to use a similar design language to the Granda Pande, with boxy shapes and a bit of retro flair.

Besides being shorter, of course, the Pandina will be boxier and more upright than the Grande Panda in order to squeeze both sets of doors into its compact footprint. Entry-level models will probably feature unpainted bumpers at the front and rear to cut costs and to hide scrapes and dings. Steel wheels should be standard fit – like on the Grande Panda – although more expensive models will get fancier alloys.

Fiat’s retro-inspired design language is most evident in the Grande Panda’s pixel headlights – something we expect to be replicated on the Pandina. Other unique design traits – like the deep, embossed Panda lettering and the old-school Fiat striped logo details – are likely to make an appearance, too.

What engine will the Fiat Pandina use?

It’s very likely that the new Fiat Pandia will be a hybrid only – at least from launch. With the Fiat 500 Ibrida in development, we expect its engine to find its way into the Pandina, too. 

That would be the same 1.2-litre mild-hybrid engine used across the Stellantis fleet, including the Vauxhall Corsa, Peugeot 208 and the Jeep Avenger. It’s an engine that comes connected to a dual-clutch automatic gearbox, and will probably deliver 99bhp, given that’s what it produces in other applications. 

Fiat has some flexibility, though. There’s always the option to introduce an electric Pandina, should there be enough market demand for it. Its Fiat 500 Electric underpinnings were designed to accommodate a battery and motor after all, so retrofitting these into an electric Pandina isn’t out of the question. It would also give Fiat a small, affordable EV to take on the upcoming Renault Twingo, Volkswagen ID.1 and Dacia EV.

How much will the Fiat Pandina cost?

It’s still early days, so an official pricing figure for the Pandina is a long way off. But if it’s to be competitive against the slew of cheap city cars headed our way, it will need to start from around £17,000. That would also give it enough breathing room below the Grande Panda, which starts from £19,000 in hybrid guise.

Find the latest new and used Fiat deals on our sister site Auto Express