Fiat Grande Panda review

Is the Fiat Grande Panda a good car? 

Building a desirable, affordable car is tough in 2025, but Fiat has played a blinder by delivering a new Grande Panda that’s not just cheap, but packed full of character and, should you wish, comes with an electric powertrain. There are some issues – motorway refinement could be improved and the rear seats are tight – but there’s so much to love about the new Grande Panda that these are not major concerns. Bravo Fiat.

How much does the Fiat Grande Panda cost?

Icon is a word so frequently used in the car industry that it could well be stripped of all meaning, but it’s entirely justified in the case of the enduring Fiat Panda. Given some of the classic models of the past, interest is always huge whenever a new generation arrives. Fiat has gone big with the new Grande Panda, not just in terms of size – this is now firmly a B-segment offering – but also with its compelling styling, electric range and aggressive price point. 

Fitted with an electric powertrain, it costs from just over £21,000 for the entry-level RED model and just under £24,000 for the fully loaded La Prima. This represents incredible value. A hybrid is also available for even less – around £2,000 model for model – but for now we’re focusing on the all-electric model, and there’s plenty to talk about. 

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For now the electric Panda comes with a single battery electric powertrain option that pairs a 111bhp e-motor mounted on the front axle with a 44kWh battery pack. This offers a good balance of performance and range considering the price point. 

Taking 11 seconds to go from 0-62mph – or 11.5 on the La Prima model’s 17-inch wheels – the Grande Panda is no firecracker to drive, something only accentuated by the rather leisurely response from the e-motor. Hit the accelerator with a firm prod and the car will make progress, but at its own pace. However, when speeds are higher, there’s still just enough grunt to keep up with motorway traffic; ambitious overtakes will need to be made with a degree of caution. 

The handling, meanwhile, is tidy and controlled, but doesn’t go out of its way to entertain. The playful edge that used to be associated with Italian superminis isn’t quite there, but then few, if any, of its rivals drive in this manner. 

More important will be the fact that the Grande Panda rides remarkably well considering its short wheelbase. Even over the cruddy roads of central Turin that we experienced, the Panda never crashed into potholes or speed humps, feeling polished and even quite plush on occasion. 

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A 200-mile range was one of the big headlines when Fiat’s Grande Panda was first announced, and it certainly delivers good efficiency at low speeds and in town, where it’ll mostly be driven. However, on faster roads, the bluff front end seems to blunt the aero, causing that figure to drop. 

This was compounded by wintry weather when we drove it, and in our hands the Grande Panda would have achieved only around 145 miles on a route that was split evenly between city, country roads and high-speed motorways. This isn’t a problem unique to the Fiat, but it will need to be kept in consideration if you regularly do motorway driving. 

Other running costs are likely to be minimal, though, as the regenerative brakes and relatively light kerbweight should keep wear and tear of parts like the brakes and tyres to a minimum. 

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What is it about small Italian cars and the importance of design? Vauxhall doesn’t have any pressure to wow people with a Corsa, nor Toyota with its Yaris. But when a new Panda is on the horizon the anticipation in Italy is tangible, with people praying that a national icon hasn’t been desecrated. Thankfully for Fiat, the new Grande Panda has arrived with a design that’s already been acclaimed widely. 

On the road, even in somewhat dreary weather, the exterior looks fresh and vibrant. Its sleek face hides the headlights, daytime running lights and even a clever retractable charging cable. This is just the start of a whole host of clever detailing that’s evident almost everywhere you care to look.

The doors have a Panda insignia stamped into their lower sections, the wheelarches sneak in a heritage ‘four-line’ Fiat badge right at their peak, and there’s a clever two-way Fiat badge on the rear door garnish. There’s more clever debossed branding on the tailgate, where you’ll also find a three-dimensional Panda badge. Anyone who appreciates clever detailing will love what’s been done with the Fiat.

But this isn’t to take anything away from the overall design, because underneath all this garnish is a well-proportioned shape with excellent surfacing, and plenty of volume in the places you want it, but not in the places you don’t. This might be a small and inexpensive car, but the exterior design has been executed with all the skill and technique of a luxury model or sports car. 

The excellence continues inside, too. This is not a cabin full of expensive soft-touch materials, but the materials that have been used are both distinctive and cleverly applied. The overall oval shape of the dash and many of its parts are inspired by the Lingotto test track that sits on the roof of Fiat’s historical factory in Turin. A fun easter egg is the tiny Grande Panda mounted on the dash next to the touchscreen. 

Once again, this fundamentally stylish architecture is dotted with lots of little details that make the Grande Panda feel more like an installation at the Milan Design Fair than an affordable supermini. Few, if any, manufacturers have used coloured acrylic as seen on the dash and, where needed, fabrics have been deployed to keep the overall ambience from feeling too cold or stark. There’s not a single piece of padded, soft-touch plastic anywhere, and for us that’s a good thing. 

For the sake of comparison, a new Renault 5 is more premium and has more content inside. But the top-spec Grande Panda is priced at around the level where the R5 kicks off, fitting customer expectations almost perfectly. 

Sat-nav, stereo and infotainment

Fiat is under no illusion that offering up a twin-screen infotainment system is going to change the world, but it’s a layout that is universally recognised as being effective for a car in this area of the market. The main 10.25-inch touchscreen is mounted in the right position and is clear and fairly easy to use. 

There’s some lag to the interfaces, and the actual menu structure could be a little easier to navigate, but as Fiat has kept the air-conditioning controls separate you could easily keep the interface in a phone-mirroring mode for the vast majority of the time. The driver’s display isn’t hugely configurable, but still offers all the info you need at a glance. 

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Despite its quasi-SUV body, space in the rear is tight. The high floor and slight hump in the rear floor can make it a squeeze for tall rear passengers, but headroom is well catered for thanks to the boxy silhouette. Compared with a MINI or Renault 5, it’s fine, but those hoping for space akin to the Citroen e-C3 or even the new Vauxhall Frontera will notice the difference.  

Beyond this, though, the Grande Panda scores well. There’s plenty of space up front, and a number of storage cubbies inside the dash, between the seats and in the door pockets.

The boot is also a good size at 412 litres, and while it lacks a movable floor or tie-down hooks, the seats do at least fold and there’s even some storage under the floor. 

However, the Grande Panda has one more trick up its sleeve in the 4.5-metre coil-type charge cable built into the car’s grille, negating the need to carry around a grubby cable in the boot. Its 7kW capacity is perfect for a slow charge at home or at a long-stay charge point.

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The Fiat Grande Panda hasn’t received a crash safety rating from the experts at Euro NCAP yet, and neither have its sister cars – the new Vauxhall Frontera, Citroen C3 and Citroen C3 Aircross – which are all based on the Smart Car platform from parent company Stellantis. Hopefully we’ll find out how the funky little Fiat and its sibling perform soon.

The Grande Panda’s selection of driver assistance systems will certainly help when it’s put through Euro NCAP’s battery of tests. Every model is equipped with rear parking sensors, cruise control, lane-keep assist, active safety braking, speed-sign recognition and driver attention monitoring. Top-spec La Prima cars also get front parking sensors and a rear-view camera. 

Fiat didn’t fare well in our most recent Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, unfortunately. Owners who responded to our survey weren’t impressed by their car’s powertrains, interiors, ride and handling or practicality, though did praise the low running costs and distinctive styling. Based on their feedback the Italian firm came second to last in our best car manufacturer rankings. Out of 32 brands, the only one that did worse was MG. 

That said, the other Stellantis marques did much better, with Peugeot and Citroen securing sixth and fifth place respectively in the best car manufacturer rankings. Plus the Mk1 Fiat 500 managed to make into the top 50 best cars to own, also based on owners’ feedback.

Fiat Grande Panda alternatives

Fiat’s not the only manufacturer to release a well-sized, stylish and affordable supermini in electric car and hybrid form in the last few months, with its key rival likely to come from the same family of vehicles – the Citroen e-C3 and its hybrid-powered C3 counterpart. 

The Renault 5 is a little more expensive, starting just below the top-spec electric La Prima, but you’ll need to keep to the entry-level model. As a car, the Renault is a better drive, more refined and feels more substantial – but you’ll need to spend upwards of another £5,000 to match the Fiat for equipment.