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24 Sep 2020

Happy Birthday, Panda: all the ‘smart solutions’ that have made the Panda unique, versatile and functional for its first 40 years

Throughout its 40 years, Panda has always been and continues to be the queen of ‘smart’ solutions. The new video to celebrate the car's birthday tells the story of all these solutions.

Happy Birthday, Panda: all the ‘smart solutions’ that have made the Panda unique, versatile and functional for its first 40 years

 

  • Throughout its 40 years, Panda has always been and continues to be the queen of ‘smart’ solutions. The new video to celebrate the car's birthday tells the story of all these solutions.
  • Luca Napolitano, Head of EMEA Fiat, Lancia & Abarth Brands, plays host to Roberto Giolito, Head of EMEA FCA Heritage, who explains how Panda has always been the car for any occasion.
  • The video is available via Fiat's social media channels, at this link

 

Over the years, Panda has earned its reputation as the car for any occasion, based on its versatile and highly functional nature, making it suitable for the widest range of uses and the most varied adventures. Customers who for 40 years have continued to choose Panda for its compactness, character, accessibility, affordability and fun are well aware of this. A multitude of advantages, all rolled up in a small, right-angled box. To find out more about the creation of all the smart solutions that have made it such a success over its three generations, Luca Napolitano, Head of EMEA Fiat, Lancia & Abarth Brands traveled to the Heritage Hub at Mirafiori, for a chat with Roberto Giolito, Head of EMEA Heritage.

 

“In this video, we take a step back in time, to find out together why Panda has become known as the car with the ‘smart solutions’,” explains Luca Napolitano. “From generation to generation, the Fiat brand's city car has always known how to impress with its original features, conceived and designed to improve life on board, in an ideal balance between form and function.  The modular seats, the tailgate and the flat cargo space are just a few of the ‘smart solutions’ that have made Panda such a resounding success. A success in every way: the Fiat Panda is the best-selling car in the Italian market, and competes with the Fiat 500 in Europe for the lead in the small city car segment. We often say that Panda is the functional icon in our line-up, Fiat’s most rational, most accessible and most democratic car and now we can understand why.”

 

“Space, compactness, character, versatility, affordability, fun and functionality are what people look for in a car. Panda has all that, and more,” says Roberto Giolito. Because Panda is an archetype, a benchmark model in terms of practicality and freedom of usage. Just think of the interiors: “full of nothing”. It's a space to fill the way you want. For example, the brilliant open compartment in the dashboard of today's Panda. As complex as it is from a design perspective, it's also very easy to use. And what can we say about its windows? They give you a constant 360° view, thanks to another ‘smart solution’: the taillights. We hear a lot these days about autonomous driving, but the Panda has offered a ‘blind spot monitor’ for ages. The only difference is it's analog.”

 

Moving on to today's ‘smart solutions’, it's important to note that Panda was the first city car with emergency braking, the first with the Cradle smartphone holder, with Waze navigation built into the Panda UConnect app, to make the car even more social media- and multimedia-oriented.  The latest new feature is the D-Fence by Mopar pack, launched last May, consisting of a high-performance passenger compartment filter, an air purifier and a UV lamp, to sanitize the car’s interior and eliminate up to 99% of bacteria. And how can we forget that Panda is the first small city car to become a mobile hotspot, using the built-in Wi-Fi by Wind, to ensure connectivity for all passengers.

 

That's Panda’s magic: a contemporary car, one that can keep in step with the times, from generation to generation. A car that has given freedom of movement to the whole family, that has never lost its will to surprise, and now also comes in the Panda Easy Hybrid version, making it the most accessible hybrid on the market. Indeed, the new model offers all the benefits of an efficient, compact, lightweight and accessible hybrid powertrain. In short, it is the best city car solution and is perfectly in line with the approach taken by Fiat, an increasingly sustainable pioneer of technology and an innovator in mobility for the last 120 years.

 

Happy birthday, Panda!

 

 

Turin, September 24, 2020

 

 

 

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