- Stylish and intuitive design
- Cheap to buy
- Easy and enjoyable drive
Small car is stylish, well thought out and good value for money, with a choice of 48V hybrid and electric power.
Overview
As Fiat’s own UK boss admits, the past couple of years have been tough for the brand’s dealer network, with a product line-up that wasn’t up to scratch. However, better times could be on the way in 2026, with a new 500 Hybrid coming shortly, and the car tested here, the Grande Panda, now available in dealerships after a somewhat protracted launch (it was first revealed in 2024).
As the name might suggest, where the old Panda was an A-segment city car, at 3.99m long the Grande Panda has grown to be a B-segment supermini, with SUV design elements such as chunky wheel arches, front and rear skid plates (on higher-spec cars), and swaged side panels (with integrated ‘PANDA’ lettering).
The Grande Panda is available with a choice of two powertrains. The 48V hybrid, which includes a 100PS petrol engine and a 21kW electric motor, is expected to account for 70% of retail sales. The alternative is a full EV, which features a 113PS electric motor and a 44kWh battery.
The Grande Panda’s most obvious rival is the Stellantis group cousin with which it shares its underpinnings – the Citroen C3 (the Vauxhall Frontera is also related but is more of an SUV). Alternatives to the electric version would include the Renault 5 E-Tech and BYD Dolphin Surf.
Pricing and spec
Both hybrid and electric Grande Pandas are available with a choice of three trim levels – Pop, Icon and La Prima. Fiat is expecting the range-topping La Prima to be by far the most popular, accounting to 80% of sales, with Icon and Pop taking just 15% and 5% respectively, despite Fiat highlighting a PCP offer with the latter offering both hybrid and electric versions for £199 per month on PCP finance with a £2,999 customer deposit (at 1.9% APR with EVs and 6.9% APR with hybrids).
Hybrid Grande Pandas are priced at £18,995 with Pop trim, £19,995 with Icon, and £21,995 with La Prima – EV versions are £2,000 more expensive. The relative closeness of the pricing between the trims is what Fiat is crediting for the high La Prima demand – we’d add that this is the only spec to get equipment such as heated seats and automatic climate control as standard.
The Grande Panda looks good value for money – it’s cheaper than the C3 as a hybrid and closely matched as an EV. These Stellantis models are also competitive in the wider market, especially as EVs, undercutting the Renault 5 E-Tech even when that model has the UK Government’s Electric Car Grant, for which the Fiat and Citroen are ineligible, applied. The Dolphin Surf is cheaper as an entry-level model, but this is with a much smaller battery.
Technology
The Grande Panda comes as standard with a pair of screens – a 10.25in touchscreen, and a 10in driver display. The touchscreen looks good and is very nicely responsive to touches – it’s also above a useful shelf which makes it easier to brace your hand and operate it when on the move. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity is standard, but only La Prima trim comes with wireless charging (and also built-in sat-nav).
Below the touchscreen, it’s great to see clearly labelled physical controls for the temperature settings.
Safety
Driver assistance systems with the Grande Panda include autonomous emergency braking, lane keeping assist, driver drowsiness warning, and speed limit warnings and information. Of particular note are clearly marked dashboard mounted buttons with which you can disable the speed and lane warnings, each with a single press – the former a feature we found especially useful during our test since the speed limits the car detected were often inaccurate.
Euro NCAP is yet to test the Grande Panda, or indeed the C3 or Frontera which share its platform.
Driving experience
The Stellantis 48V hybrid system is a slightly more capable version of now-commonplace mild hybrid technology. Like most mild hybrids it gives electrical assistance to the petrol engine when accelerating and allows the engine to switch off and ‘coast’ at speed. But the Stellantis system, with its 21kW motor, can also provide electric-only drive in some low-speed situations, such as when crawling in traffic or parking. In practice, however, you might not notice it much – during our test, aside from when manoeuvring out of our initial parking space, we found we had to turn the air conditioning off to even get the coasting function to work, while the creeping in traffic function was only effective for limited periods. With the air conditioning on, the petrol engine kept running even while we were stopped in a lay-by making notes.
For most drivers most of the time, therefore, it’ll feel like a petrol engine – and a pretty decent one. There’s reasonably sharp acceleration available when you need it, and the engine doesn’t get too noisy even under full throttle. Official combined WLTP figures are 55.4mpg and 117g/km.
As for the electric version, with 113hp available you don’t get the lightning acceleration on offer with some EVs, but performance is still acceptable for a small car. The 44kWh battery allows a range of 199 miles on the official WLTP combined cycle. A 100kW DC charging capacity means a 20%-80% charge is possible in 27 minutes.
On the subject of charging, an innovative feature with the Grande Panda is a charging cable that coils up like an old landline telephone cord inside a compartment hidden in the front grille. It seems a really neat and clever solution, though we might want to try living with it to see how it works in practice. It also only supports 7kW AC charging – a rear AC charging port ups this speed to 11kW.
Instead of the B-mode which often increases the regenerative braking level with EVs, you get a C-mode to reduce it, but the default mode is pretty subtle anyway so we’d expect most drivers to not bother with this. We didn’t encounter any EV braking modulation problems.
We were impressed by the Grande Panda’s ride – road surface imperfections and potholes are well cushioned, allowing pretty serene progress down pockmarked British B-roads. With the heavier EV version in particular we noticed a bit of roll in corners, but this doesn’t prevent it being fun to drive – the Grande Panda flows nicely between bends on winding roads. Light steering doesn’t make it difficult to place on the road, and we’d expect most buyers to appreciate it around town.
Practicality
Both the hybrid and more incongruously the EV come with an old-school insert-and-turn ignition key.
We would like to have a little more steering wheel reach adjustment – it felt like we had to choose between our arms stretching a bit for the wheel or our feet being too close to the pedals. At least the centre armrest you get with Icon and La Prima cars is well placed.
The La Prima spec we tested comes with a blue and white interior scheme (you get black and white with other trims), which really brings a sense of life and visual interest to a cabin which is largely trimmed with plastic – although in fairness we’d say these plastics aren’t the scratchiest you might find in a value-conscious car. The faux-leather steering wheel you get with Icon and La Prima specs adds a quality feel, and there’s a nice chunky vibe generally. La Prima spec also gets dashboard material incorporating bamboo, which while it might just sound like an unsubtle panda-based gimmick does add further textile interest.
Perhaps unsurprisingly for a sub-4m car, rear legroom is a little tight for adults, but headroom is good. There are two USB-C ports back there with La Prima spec, but no dedicated air vents.
The boot offers 350 litres of space, augmented by a further 62 litres below the floor with the hybrid, and 11 litres with the EV. It has quite a high lip, but is a good size for a small car, and bigger than that found in the C3 – though the more SUV-focused Frontera is more practical.