► CAR interviews Fiat & Abarth Europe boss
► Be ‘rigid’ with the brand DNA
► Knowing what Fiat is for is key
You know those cute and practical small cars that Fiat has been brilliant at over the decades? After a lot of attempts to break out of that part of the market, Fiat has realised that it’s best just sticking to what it’s so good at.
‘When you think about Fiat, you have the Panda world and the 500 world. When customers walk into our showrooms you have two very different kinds of cars. You are either a 500 lover and you don’t even look at the Panda – “Forget it, it’s not for me!” and the other way around. If you are a Panda lover you don’t even look at the 500 cars,’ says Gaetano Thorel, head of Fiat and Abarth in Europe.
Fiat has high hopes for the Grande Panda, now available with engines as well as the EV version that arrived earlier in the year.
‘The urban environment is the perfect territory for electric car. I mean driving an electric car in London or Milan – it’s a no-brainer, right?’ says Thorel. ‘Range and charging are not issues in the city. So electric cars should be city cars. But then you look at the electric car sectors, and it’s the opposite: if you look at how the electric industry in Europe is divided, cars in the in the A and B sectors are the huge minority, and most of the electric cars are in the premium C and D sectors. That is pretty strange, no? Electric models have been a success in Europe for Fiat, with the 500e and now the Grande Panda electric, which will be around 20 per cent of Grande Panda sales. The electric city car will develop, but for us it’s a must because it’s our territory. Fiat exists for urban mobility and light commercial vehicles.’
It’s no secret that a lot of the componentry is shared across the Stellantis group – so how does Fiat ensure its cars remain Fiaty, and not be mistaken for Vauxhalls or Citroëns?
‘The job when we developed Grande Panda was to be very rigid on the DNA of the brand,’ says Thorel. ‘And if maintaining this DNA requires modifications then we modify to keep the Fiat character. This as the opportunity. If you are very good at developing a car that’s rooted in your DNA that is what will make the difference to the customer. A Fiat must be a Fiat. If you just have a copycat approach to everything then you have a problem.’
Part of knowing what Fiat is and isn’t involves knowing where the Abarth sub-brand fits in. In the case of the Grande Panda, it doesn’t.
‘Abarth is the black sheep of the family,’ says Thorel’s colleague Guillaume Clerc, head of product for Fiat and Abarth. ‘It’s always more than a little off the beaten track. There will not always be an Abarth version of every Fiat. With the 500 and 600 we knew from the start we would have Abarth versions. But nothing is currently planned for the Grande Panda. Performance is what counts in the end – we always want to create a car that gives customers the Abarth thrill and excitement.
‘Price is a factor too. If we were to do a Grande Panda Abarth we would have to ensure it wouldn’t jeopardise its positioning in the market. The Grande Panda will be built in the Kragujevac plant in Serbia and it will be at full capacity for a number of years. So only when there would be the capacity and the technology to deliver the performance would we consider it.’
Ben is a long-time contributor to CAR magazine and remains one of our editors-at-large.
By Ben Whitworth
Contributing editor, sartorial over-achiever, younger than he looks