All-electric and hybrid Fiat ‘Pandina’ set to share tech and platform with the Fiat 500 to keep costs low. Fiat’s new Panda family is set to grow both bigger and smaller following the arrival of the new Fiat Grande Panda. Fiat CEO Olivier Francois had already confirmed to The Independent that a larger version of the Grande Panda – expected to the name of a different member of the bear family – would arrive in 2026.
![[Expect design inspiration from the classic Fiat Panda, an icon of the 80s and 90s]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/02/13/17/21/Fiat-Panda.png)
Now Francois has confirmed that a replacement for the current baby Panda – nicknamed Pandina in Italy – is likely to follow soon after that. Technical changes to the new Fiat 500, currently only available as an electric model and built at Fiat’s famous Mirafiori factory in Turin, will make it possible to bring a new baby Panda to life using the same technology. Speaking at the launch of the Grande Panda in Italy, Francois confirmed that the new all-electric Fiat 500 is being re-engineered to accept a petrol hybrid drivetrain. Fracois told The Independent that “by the end of the year, we'll have a modern hybrid 500 – not the 2007 generation – and it'll be built here.”.
The new Fiat 500 is unusual in having its own dedicated platform rather than sharing its technology with other models, bringing hugely beneficial economies of scale. The new Grande Panda shares its Smart Car platform with other members of the Stellantis family like the Vauxhall Frontera and Citroen C3. That will change with a new baby Panda, which is expected to share the Fiat 500’s platform, as well as its electric or new hybrid powertrains.
Emissions legislation will see the end of production for the current baby Panda, as it did for petrol versions of the previous Fiat 500. But Francois is determined that a baby Panda will live on. “We cannot stay without a Pandina, especially in Italy,” he said. “Obviously, I want to replace the little Panda and there will be a replacement. So I need to do it with another platform, which likely will be the Fiat 500 platform – an evolution of it obviously.
“We’ll follow a little bit the passage of the 500, which started electric and now as electric is slowing down. We still have a big market share but of a shrinking market. So we’re introducing the new 500, the hybrid version. We are going to do exactly the same thing [as we did] with the Panda.”. With the hybrid version of the new 500 confirmed for this year, we’d expect to see the new baby Panda some time in late 2026 or early 2027, after the bigger version of the Grande Panda is unveiled.
