Fiat locks in new model plans

The good news is that Fiat has a new 500 is on the way with extra models and more fun. The bad news is that will take another year to deliver them.

A senior management meeting in Turin last month decided the fate of most of Fiat’s upcoming model line-up, with its two best-sellers -- the Cinquecento (500) and the Panda -- at the core of the debates.

The Panda is loved by no-nonsense and urban Italians, while the 500 has been Fiat’s main profit-maker for a decade.

Both models will continue to share their basic platforms, with the 500 also continuing to score some higher-quality suspension set-ups, and an all-electric 500 option, complete with forward-facing 'suicide' rear doors, will be available around the next European summer.

There are also plans to revive the 500 Giardiniera wagon, to finally place a quality machine beneath the 500X bodyshell and move the Tipo on to a crossover chassis, sources say. Thankfully, the truly awful 500L will not be replaced.

All future Fiat 500 models will receive a welcome hike in engineering quality and cost, which will also mean the purchase prices will also rise in unison.

The current 500 is now 13 years old (the original 1957 500 lasted 18 years), but it is still selling well in Europe, despite outliving two full generations of the MINI hatch.

The Panda, meanwhile, will be based around the acclaimed Centoventi concept car from this year’s Geneva motor show when it arrives in 2021, and it should even receive an electric version by 2023.

Fiat has also reined in its ambitions for larger or sportier models and will instead sit between 3.5 and 4.5 metres long, which means it will build nothing larger than a C-segment car like a Ford Focus or a Volkswagen Golf.