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Fiat brings back an icon — but does the new all-electric Grande Panda live up to the legend? Steve Fowler gives his full verdict after a hands-on review and test drive.In this episode of Drive Smart, The Independent’s EV Editor Steve Fowler takes the all-new Fiat Grande Panda EV for a spin. With its retro-inspired design and compact practicality, this modern remake of the iconic Panda aims to blend nostalgia with next-gen city driving. But is it just style, or is there substance too?
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00:00the most lucrative road for car makers to go down right now is memory lane this is an original
00:07fiat panda cute isn't it pandas have always been cute things and if you were fiat if you
00:13wanted to make some serious cash you'd reinvent an icon wouldn't you think what renault did
00:18you'd reinvent the panda that's exactly what fiat have done
00:32before we talk about the reinvention of the panda let's just have a look at this original one because
00:37it is so so good i mean it's just typical fiat isn't it this is what you think of when anybody
00:44says fiat it's it's dinky it's so small look at it look how how low it is but the design details
00:52as well from the 80s you've got these uh these sort of air vents on the top of the bonnet which
00:57look fabulous these white steel wheels which with these roads tinted spectacles on did they look as
01:03good as that in the 80s but they look fantastic now don't they really really narrow a pillar before
01:10crash safety became a thing and i'm glad it has become a thing just come and have a come and have
01:15a look inside as well because the fabric on the seats is so 80s how thin these doors are remember
01:22these things my kids probably got no idea what that sort of thing does if they saw it it winds up the
01:29windows the the clever door opening there the instrument binnacle yeah okay as i said i've got rose
01:36tinted spectacles on i like these retro things i like a bit of retro action but the design of this
01:42car really is fabulous it's no surprise that fiat has decided to reinvent the panda this is the new
01:53fiat grandi panda yes grand does have an e on the end which makes it grandi panda but look at the
02:00difference look at the difference in size between this panda of the 1980s and this panda of the 2020s
02:09but there are loads of similarities i'm going to walk you around this car the first one in the uk
02:16to show you some of the beautiful design features that hark back to this car do you know what we're
02:23then going to go for a drive come and have a look now this car is is much bigger but proportionally you
02:28can see it is a panda straight front square headlamps some fantastic detailing when this is lit
02:36you can see what these sort of pixel leds do and fiat branding here the secret there we're going to
02:43come back to that but it's around the side where i think the panda really comes to life have a look
02:50at just above these these wheel arches you've got these stripes just put into the plastic just here
02:57which mirror the old fiat logo on the the front of that car brilliant lots and lots of reminders
03:04of what the car is and embossed literally boldly down the side is the word panda you're not going
03:12to forget that this is a fiat panda even the chunky roof rails you know they're fairly retro and there's
03:20panda written at the back here again you've got fiat written here in this panel on the back door of
03:26course everything's five door nobody wants three door cars anymore more fiat stripes here and i just
03:32love this back end now you can see this car at the back next to that car at the back it is huge but
03:40once again you've got the same sort of square lights just sort of plonked in as a a bit of an extra and and
03:47again a very usable boot shape which just makes the car more practical fiat embossed in the back here
03:56panda written down there and e to remind you that this is an all-electric panda more of those fiat stripes
04:04the old fiat logo this is a brilliant piece of design it's not a pastiche it looks really modern
04:12yet you know it's a fiat panda and you know i told you about this secret at the front come and have
04:17a look at this so somewhere hidden behind there is not a charging port but this is really clever look
04:32why hasn't anybody done this before so this enables you to charge anywhere and it just keeps keeps
04:40it's like mary poppins handbag isn't it it just keeps coming you've got your own charging cable
04:47in the car i love that brilliant simple useful very panda normally with these charging cables you've got
04:56a bit of snake charmer to try and get them back into a bag or something but i was supposed to be really
05:02surprised at how easy it is to get that back in there how does it go right that just goes back in like
05:11that look first time i've done that now trust me i'm not normally that smart that's brilliant love it
05:23this is another brilliant retro modern interior now the shape of the dashboard here the instrument
05:30binnacle is supposedly uh to represent fiat's longotto test track as is the the center console here
05:37there's wireless charging there's lots of interesting fabric bits on here it even says fiat on the door
05:46panels i just you'd think it'd be overkill wouldn't you but it just kind of works nicely and works right
05:53my favorite thing is what do you think of when you think of pandas you think of those videos of them
05:58rolling around and being silly and eating bamboo don't you bamboo of course very sustainable material
06:05and they have bamboo here on the dash and in other little places this car in this upper trim level
06:12gets a bamboo interior and there is a storage lid there that pops up lots of storage spaces this is
06:21a really clever interior feels really comfortable i'll let you know what it's like out on the road
06:26but in the meantime let me just jump in the back i'm not made for getting in the back of cars but
06:30give you an idea of how much space there is or there isn't
06:36yes yes i know i'm a big bloke and big blokes don't normally sit in the back of cars particularly
06:42behind a seat that is set up for me another big bloke in the front let me just use my shoulder a bit
06:47in my hand to put the headdress up but do you know what look so i am on the large side but there's
06:54still a bit of knee room in here i can put my feet under the seat which i didn't manage to do in the
07:00reno 4 which was a bit distressing but there's loads of space in here i would be comfortable on a
07:05decent journey here i don't think i'd want three of me across the back you know you can in theory get
07:10five people in here but if kids aren't exactly my size kids will be very happy back here the doors open
07:16nice and wide the the aperture is quite tall getting a child in a child seat shouldn't be too
07:22much of a problem you've got some nice features with the the materials back here and fears again
07:27on the on the doors some pockets via mobile phone charging points yeah i'm really impressed back
07:35here but i just wonder there's decent space it's a decent space in the boot or they made the boot a
07:41bit smaller so you get a bit more knee room let's have a look shall we
07:47i know what you're thinking you're thinking what does 361 liters of boot space look like well let's
07:54try and find the uh opener there 361 liters of boot space which in the real world it's probably big
08:05enough i reckon you could probably get one decent size suitcase in there or those little cabin bags
08:11i reckon you'd easily get probably three maybe even four cabin bags in there the seats will fold
08:18down so you can still have two people in there and put one seat down which is is pretty cool another
08:22thing i quite like this is some in the world where we get spoiled with powered doors for the boot it's
08:31really quite light which i like so there is an awful lot to like about the new fiat panda but what's
08:39the panda like out in the wild i'm going to find out
08:52so this is my first opportunity to drive the panda in the wild here in the uk and i should point out
09:06that as much as i'm driving it on the the lanes and streets about around salubrious late and buzzard
09:11some of the footage you may see is of me driving the car around the streets of turin two very similar
09:18places in many ways but i've driven it in the uk and in italy and yeah i'm sure there are some lovely
09:25italian restaurants in late and buzzard as well as turin but my first views and it's always a
09:32concern drove the car until you're in felt really good and driving it here it still feels really good
09:40it's a very easy car to drive you know there's actually a rear window that i can see out of it's
09:46not the slither that it is in so many new cars the visibility forward is good there's a nice
09:52deep windscreen i would say that the visibility in here is better than it is in a renault 4 or renault 5
09:57nice big door mirrors as well before we go any further let's just talk about some numbers the
10:06panda comes in two flavors so you can either have a grandy panda red which works with the charity red
10:13and some money from your your purchase goes to the charity that's the entry level car still nicely
10:19equipped and that costs 21 000 and 35 pounds this car is the la prima version you've got to say with
10:27that italian accent la prima which is 24 000 and 35 pounds and you get all the nice it is with that
10:36you get the bamboo effect interior and this twin color scheme and it's really rather nice i like the
10:43the lacrima very much now only one battery 44 kilowatt hour battery which is good for 199 miles now you
10:52might think 199 miles that's not a lot this isn't a car that's made to drive from london to glasgow it's
11:00a sort of car that you're going to be ferrying the family around a lot of the time and for that 199 miles
11:07is probably more than enough so you know i've had cars in the past where i've barely done 199 miles
11:14in a week let alone in a single journey so it will be easy to live with 199 miles but what's impressing
11:22me most is it is a comfortable drive is it as comfy as a citron ec3 which this car shares an awful lot with
11:32under the skin the battery the platform etc probably not quite but i'd say it's probably got a bit more
11:39character than that car you know i'm going over some lots of bumps as you can see here and it's
11:45pretty comfortable over the potholes and again from a family car a small family car it's kind of what you
11:51want isn't it just a bit of comfort you know the steering is nice and communicative but what's more
11:57important this isn't a sports car the grande panda is not in a bath whether there'll be in our bath
12:05version that might be quite interesting but this is a comfortable easy to live with family car that
12:12doesn't cost a lot of money is nice and easy to drive has a really lovely interior that is as characterful
12:20as the outsides you're not going to get bored with it it's clearly a panda and nothing else
12:25and for that it deserves a huge amount of praise so there we are we've been out in the new fiat
12:33grande panda in the wild we're back in the studio and back with this lovely lovely original so what do
12:41i think of the new fiat grande panda first of all i absolutely love it i think it's a really really
12:49clever car from a design point of view they've done enough to keep it retro as i said it's not a pastiche
12:54little design details are great it also answers a lot of the questions that people will ask about
13:00electric cars they're all expensive aren't they well you can get one of these for around 21 000 pounds
13:06and on a finance deal i'm sure it's going to be really affordable they don't go far enough well 199
13:11miles is going to be more than enough for most people it drives really nicely but in a world and
13:18a sea of samey particularly chinese evs that are coming to the market it's so refreshing to have
13:25something a bit different something with a bit of character and okay it might be a bit retro but at least
13:32if you say to somebody i've got a fiat grande panda they're going to have a really good idea what car
13:39you've got and they're going to very soon have a really good idea that it's a really good car too i love it
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