The Italian market might be down by 29% year to date but November wasn’t too bad, falling by 8%. Fiat had a good month, dipping by less than 2% due to high demand for the Panda. A new mild hybrid powertrain has given this soon to be nine-year old city car a new lease of life. Can the momentum be maintained?
Roughly three quarters of all Pandas rolling out of the Pomigliano d’Arco plant remain within Italy. Not only was it the only car to have a registrations total in five figures last month – 10,908 versus 4,529 for the second placed Yaris – but it’s also the sole vehicle to be in six figures over the eleven months: 101,389.
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There’s no other market like this one, as the ancient Lancia Ypsilon proves, being in second place with 38,305 registrations, some 9,000 clear of the infinitely more modern Renault Clio. And how about this for a further fact: Italians don’t yet seem much interested in electric cars with neither the ID.3 nor the Zoe making the top 50 in November, while just 263 Teslas were sold.
By contrast to the – for now at least – indifference to EVs, people are very keen on hybrids, or rather are attracted to the cost incentives which are part and parcel of buying/leasing and operating them. Sure, Toyota has steadily become a popular brand in Italy yet much of its recent rise comes from one car: the hybrid version of the Yaris. The marque’s only other model to break into five figures during the year to date is the C-HR: the majority of those will be hybrids too.
Fiat Chrysler – big in small mild hybrids
FCA came late to petrol-electric power and aside from the New 500, its EVs are few (there’s several PHEV Jeeps though and loads more coming). The Panda Mild Hybrid, and identically powered 500 Mild Hybrid, are the firm’s and the Fiat brand’s main models with this technology. Although as the number above shows, Lancia’s only model, another A segment hatchback, has been similarly reinvigorated by gaining the same FireFly 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine and 12-volt BSG (Belt-integrated Starter Generator). Energy recovered from braking and deceleration is stored in an 11Ah li-ion battery and uses it at a peak output of 3.6 kW. This fires up the engine in Stop&Start mode and boosts acceleration.
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By GlobalDataIn all three cars, power and torque for the newly Euro 6D Final-compliant engine are 51 kW (70 PS) and 92 Nm. Tiny numbers yes but performance isn’t bad at all, when there’s minimal weight to propel, and economy is excellent. I recently tried the Panda Cross, which somehow pulls off a wants-to-look-tough stance in spite of being just 3.7 m long. How small is that?
Design
Just months after Land Rover brought out the first Range Rover Evoque with its teensy windows, especially the rear one, Fiat plonked the current Panda onto the market with generous glazing, something which has become unfashionable with so many designers. If you’ll pardon the pun, big windows are a breath of fresh air and there’s even a pane in each D pillar. It’s such a small car this one yet from the inside it’s anything but tiny. How we’ve all become used to expecting electronic help with reversing but there’s no camera in the Panda I recently tested because (a) FCA doesn’t fit one so as to save money (b) realises that you don’t need one.
Speaking of car designers having a lot of say, those who took control of the Panda’s dashboard went a bit nuts with one particular shape. The little Fiat has a square with rounded edges everywhere: internal door handles, gear knob, speedometer, warning lights, tachometer, door speakers, HVAC controls, steering wheel buttons, and even the cup holders. Thankfully not the steering wheel, handbrake or ignition key though. The fog lamps have the same shape going on too.
Recycled plastics
The quality of the carpet and plastics isn’t quite the last word in premium-looking or feeling yet we mustn’t forget that this is a cheap-ish car. But most of what are recycled materials (dashboard, seat fabric, etc…) look and feel fairly durable, including the SEAQUAL-branded seat covers. Not sure I’d apply that to the nylon strap which serves as the pull to close the boot though.
What FCA terms the MY2021 adjustments to the Panda range include new bumpers, colours, alloy wheels and some updates for the interior, including the recycled components. The line-up is now three cars called Life, Sport and Cross and the trim levels have become Panda, City Life, Wild 4×4, Sport, City Cross and Cross 4×4. The mild hybrid powertrain is only available for FWD cars.
City Cross & Cross 4×4
The City Cross which was supplied for this review had dark mirror covers, door handles, roof rails and side sills, body-coloured bumpers and skidplates plus what Fiat calls a ceramic blue pastel paint option. Those who go for the Panda Cross 4×4 get the segment’s only off-road capable hatchback. This has an all terrain selector with three modes (Auto, Off-road, Hill Descent Control), all-wheel drive and a locking rear differential.
The Cross 4×4 also comes with red-painted front tow hooks, electrically adjustable and heated body-coloured mirrors, front and rear bumpers with silver skid plates, silver side mouldings as well as roof rails and dark tinted rear windows. Inside, the dashboard is trimmed with processed waste wood, while what are new black and grey two-tone seats feature fabric in the centre panel made from “at least 37 per cent” recycled material.
New lights please
Things which make the Panda the Panda include that amazing sense of interior space – especially head room – abundant body roll and steering that’s too light for many of us plus something which I never need to comment on, other than to occasionally moan about how dangerous and undesirable an automatic high-beam function is. Laser headlights always sound cool but are they really any better than the super-high standard of most cars’ LED ones anyway? Forget that question for the moment though: what I want to make note of is how dreadful the Panda’s headlights are.
No car’s headlights are ever anything other than excellent; in fact the laser ones I always think ‘sure, they’re good but really are these pricey things any better than the usual LED ones?’. The Fiat’s are bad though. To be sure it wasn’t the fault of dirt and salt I gave them a proper clean a few times, yet that barely helped. Please could we have better ones urgently, FCA? And update for the lights is even claimed to be part of the MY21 changes.
Sum-up
I couldn’t fault much else with the City Cross. The six-speed manual gearbox was always slick, the pedals have a satisfying weight to them, the engine makes a great sound and loves to rev, I got in excess of 55 mpg, there was no infection of the dreaded white-line-fever from the Panda’s Lane Keeping Assist system (attention so many OEMs: please study how FCA manages this when you can’t or worse, won’t, especially Mercedes with its horrible-aggressive steering wheel tugging).
To sum up the Panda, I’d say for what you pay, apart from the poor headlights, it’s great value and something which the segment can otherwise lack: a car with strong personality.
What’s next?
The replacement had at one time been expected to be manufactured in Poland. FCA may have instead inked in the existing model’s production plant as the location of build for the successor. However, the creation of Stellantis means that the whole project might be delayed until 2022, 2023 or even 2024 should work start afresh on switching the architecture to the latter’s CMP and e-CMP.
There should also be a 4×4 Jeep variant, in the same way that the 500X and Renegade are manufactured in the same factory, using an identical architecture.
Concept Centoventi, a design study named after Fiat’s 120th anniversary, was revealed at the 2019 Geneva motor show. It seemed to herald the shape of the next Panda. The concept was fully electric.
A battery-powered Panda may either become the default model in the same way that the New 500 is the successor for the 500, or else an EV might instead be added in 2022 or 2023.
The MY21 Fiat Panda range went on sale in November, priced from GBP11,895 for the 1.0-litre Mild Hybrid (CO2: 123 g/km). The City Cross with the same engine costs from GBP13,995 (CO2: 126-127g/km) with the Cross 0.9-litre TwinAir 4×4 rising to GBP17,995.
