Fiat Grande Panda 2025 review: Panda is back as an EV and a hybrid, bigger and — whisper it — better
Get the feeling of felicità
What can European carmakers do in the face of an onslaught of new, cheap cars from China? The answer that most have landed on is to plunder their rich heritage: Renault is doing that with the Renault 5, Renault 4 and Twingo; Ford is leaning on the Mustang name while resurrecting the Capri and Explorer badges; and Vauxhall recently breathed new life into Frontera — this time as a compact electric SUV.
Some of those models will be more successful than others, of course, but no one can doubt the impact all of them have had — it’s a sure-fire way to get us hacks writing about a new model. And as the Renault 5 shows, if you get the design right then the people will fall in love with the model all over again.
So what do you make of the new Grande Panda you see here, I wonder? It brings back a nameplate first introduced in 1980, and a car that went on to become a cult favourite. It’s bigger than any Panda that has come before — hence “Grande” — but that’s because it sits on underpinnings that, unlike those of the Fiat 500, allow for low retail prices and multiple powertrain options. It’s the same as the Frontera, in fact, which is also surprisingly cheap in its new guise.
Initially, the Grande Panda be available as hybrid and pure-electric, but who knows… maybe a regular old petrol car will be introduced at some point for some markets around the world. That’s because the Grande Panda is what carmakers call a “global car”, and so it has to appeal Italians and Indians, Brits and Brazilians, Australians and Austrians… and many other markets besides. That’s a tough ask because each market’s tastes are very different. For example, people in the United States actually think Chryslers are good.
And while lots of people in Europe would have been happy to see the Punto make a comeback, others around the world world have been scratching their heads — the Panda is known much more widely, and Fiat’s aim is for it to be sold wherever Fiat has a presence. No wonder Fiat boss Olivier Francois calls this the most important launch for the brand in a long time.
There are a few ways, he added, that you can help a global car succeed. One is to make it a “utility vehicle” — basically ensuring it is compact but practical and spacious, and able to handle a bit of abuse on less than smooth road surfaces, and that’s something for which the Panda has always been known.
It’s also important to make it affordable, and with the Grande Panda it’s mission accomplished. It comes with either a hybrid powertrain or fully electric, with prices in the UK starting at just £18,975, for a car that comes pretty well loaded with equipment. Even the entry-level pure-electric version costs from under £21,000, which makes it exceptionally good value, given its battery is good for 199 miles (officially — more on that below).
The other thing you need to do, said Francois, is create an “instant icon”, and this is all about design. For my money, Fiat has done a terrific job on this front, following the Renault 5 route (the man behind the new Grande Panda, it turns out, used to work at Renault… interesting, n’est-ce pas?) of making it a clear modern interpretation of the original car, with a highly recognisable silhouette that apes the 1980 Giugiaro-penned Panda.
And Fiat has had fun with this car. Check out the embossed lettering in the doors and on the boot, as well as the laser-etched block on the pillar behind the rear door, which says FIAT from one angle and shows the four-stripe motif if you look at it from the rear.
In another nod to the original, white-painted steel wheels come with the entry-level cars, which will keep many an enthusiast happy, though I am among the few motoring hacks on the launch who actually preferred the look of the alloys on the range-topping La Prima versions.
The front of the car deserves a mention, too, with its asymmetric-design full-width “mask” and pixel LEDs, which are a reference to the video games of the 1980s, such as Pac-Man (though Hyundai may be a bit miffed, as pixel lighting is its thing right now – see the Ioniq 5, for example). An even cuter link to Fiat history is the design of the LED headlights either side, with the five-square pattern being a nod to the windows of the historic Lingotto factory in Turin – made famous in 1969’s The Italian Job, starring Michael Caine.
And the electric Grande Panda is the first production EV to come with an integrated charging cable, which is found behind the Fiat-branded flap on the nose.
Open it up and you can simply pull out the 4.5m-long spiral cable and plug in, without having to mess around in the boot digging out a separate lead. It can only take 7kW, so a separate charging port for faster charges can be found on the rear haunch (the Grande Panda will take up to 100kW DC, for a 20-80 per cent charge in 33 minutes), but the integrated job is perfect for kerbside charging or home wallboxes.
Inside, the links to Lingotto continue, with the oval shapes of the headrest, driver’s display and dashboard aping the building’s oval rooftop test track. It’s cute stuff, and goes some way to achieving Fiat’s goal of making the new Panda “the official car of felicità” — meaning happiness.
The cabin designers were not messing around with their role in bringing this felicità spirit to the Grande Panda — it’s as colourful as a children’s soft play centre, and uses some leftfield materials. On La Prima models, for example, the dashboard gets a fabric covering made from bamboo fibres (panda… get it?), and the seats are covered in embossed “squircle” patterns.
Fiat also made a big thing of how much sustainable materials are employed in the cabin, including finding a way to use the 20 per cent of food and drinks cartons that are typically unable to be mass-recycled for the car’s seats and other plastics.
It’s attractive, too, with bespoke digital graphics and lovely details such as the miniature car that features on the passenger side of the instrument binnacle’s lingotto oval. And a lot of thought has gone into storage, with an extra glovebox on the top of the dashboard, decently-sized door pockets and a deep bin under the central armrest.
It’s not too tricky to get comfortable up front, with a decent amount of headroom, but taller drivers will suffer from the classic Italian trick of using gorillas for the ergonomics — put the seat in its most rearward position and there’s not enough reach adjustment on the steering wheel, meaning you either have to lean slightly forward or have cramped legs.
The seat base, too, is a little narrow so those who eat too much pasta and drink too much chianti (guilty) will find their bums a little squeezed by the side bolsters – over a long run I did end up with an ache in my hip. The squab’s a little short for those with long legs, too, and as the headrests are fixed to the seats, they can press into the top of a tall driver’s spine. This is not the ideal car for people over about 6ft 2in.
At least you can benefit from a heated steering wheel and heated seats on the La Prima models, so there are enough luxuries for people without plus-sized bodies to feel really rather pampered.
And the back is surprisingly commodious for a car under 4m long, and even my frame could fit in there for short runs — children and less freakishly tall adults will feel perfectly happy in the back. Even better, that’s not at the expense of boot space, which is a very serviceable 361 litres in the electric version (the same as a Toyota Corolla), or 412 litres in the hybrid (matching that of the Peugeot 308).
That hybrid version wasn’t available at the launch in Turin, so driving impressions are limited to the electric version, but it’s good news for anyone wanting to go fully electric. Like the Renault 5, the ride is superb over rough surfaces, soaking up speed bumps, ruts and potholes, while the handling is keen and precise, with a sporty feel to the steering. There are no driving modes, so that’s the default set up.
Being electric, the instantaneous acceleration is impressive, too, and even at motorway speeds you can put your foot down for swift, confident overtakes (up to the top speed of 82mph). What’s more, the cabin is pretty well hushed, with little in the way of wind or road noise, meaning long runs aren’t draining.
Long runs are possible, though with a maximum official range of 199 miles — and less than that in cold weather, and at high speeds — you will need to plan motorway journeys carefully. My co-driver and I saw the range drop from 91 per cent at the start of our test to 37 per cent after 71 miles of driving, so with a battery capacity of 44kWh that means we were averaging about 3 miles per kWh, for a max real world range of 132 miles per charge.
To be fair to the car, the weather in Turin was unusually cold and inclement, and we were pretty lead-footed during our drive, so if you’re being careful you should expect to see 150 miles, possibly more during a British summer. A longer range version will join the family at some point, but at launch in April that’ll be the only choice for us Brits.
If you can live with the 44kWh model, though, the new Fiat Grande Panda electric is a superb little runaround for families, and full of character. It feels robust and practical, and what’s more is impressively affordable. Finance details for UK models haven’t been announced, but judging by the offers available in Germany for the La Prima model, they’re likely to be extremely attractive. The hybrid model solves the range problem and will be even cheaper still.
This is all brilliant news for drivers, but for Fiat it potentially poses a problem: why would anyone buy the 600e, which goes a bit further but is only slightly larger and costs eight grand more in La Prima spec, when the Grande Panda is so good?
Related article
- If you are interested in this review of the Fiat Grande Panda, you might also like to check out this review of the Citroën C3 and e-C3 electric, which are similarly affordable small family cars
- Also take a look at our review of the Fiat 600e
- And don’t miss our review of the Renault 5, which we reckon is this best affordable EV currently on sale
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