Fiat is committed to offering an affordable combustion-powered successor to the current Panda alongside its future affordable city car project.

While the current Panda, which dates back to 2012, is no longer sold in the UK, due to the ZEV mandate, it remains the best-selling car in Italy and accounted for more than 70% of Fiat’s sales last year.

With EV uptake dramatically lower in Italy than in Northern Europe, Fiat’s European boss Gaetano Thorel said the firm is committed to continuing to serve those customers in the future.

Fiat is currently working on an affordable sub-£15,000 city car that will be twinned with the forthcoming Citroën 2CV revival from its fellow Stellantis brand, intended to take advantage of the EU's planned E-car rules.

This will naturally form the entry point of Fiat’s electric car range, sitting above the Topolino and new Multiplina quadricycles.

But Thorel said the firm “hadn’t decided yet” if it would take the Panda name, due to the passionate following for the current model.

“The E-car could be the next-gen Panda, but we haven’t decided yet,” Thorel told Autocar. “It depends first on future regulations and second that we as Fiat have a duty, particularly in Italy, to think of the millions of Panda owners and give them a solution in the future.

“We have a duty to this popola di Panda [Panda population], which alone has a 7% share of the Italian market every month, to give them an answer for today and tomorrow that is based on their needs and not based regulations.”

Thorel didn’t rule out branding both models as Pandas, as Fiat previously did with the technically unrelated combustion and electric versions of the 500.

He wouldn’t specify whether Fiat is considering a new ICE Panda or continuing to update the existing model, but he said: “One thing is clear: I need to find a proper answer for my Panda population. We need to find a multi-energy solution.”

Thorel noted that the commitment by Stellantis to build the two E-cars are its plant in Pomigliano was “important for us because small cars are Italian territory and it means Pomigliano will have a future”.