Fiat is “ready” to reveal a new entry-level electric car twinned with the reborn Citroën 2CV - and it could be called the Koala.
The new EV is expected to be an electric counterpart to the existing combustion-engined Panda, which has been on sale in Europe for the past 15 years and is now also known as the Pandina.
It will share Stellantis’s new bespoke platform for small EVs with the 2CV, which was unveiled in concept form at the Paris motor show and will go on sale in 2028.
It has been designed to take advantage of the EU's mooted E-car ruleset, which has been devised to incentivise manufacturers to sell electric cars measuring less than 4.2m long.
This ruleset is inspired by the framework that underpins Japan’s kei cars, which account for roughly 40% of its home market, and is intended to reduce prices to boost the mainstream transition to EVs.
Although the European class – first proposed by Stellantis and the Renault Group in July 2025 – has yet to be signed into law, several manufacturers have described it as key to securing a future for European manufacturing.
Fiat’s first entry into the segment will be the electric Panda replacement, but the company is already working on follow-ups as part of its renewed strategic focus on small, affordable cars.
Speaking at the Paris motor show, new Fiat boss Arnauld Belloni said: “We are working on a few cars based on the E-car platform. We are preparing a small car which will be based on the 2CV, and it’s going to be a ‘wow’."
Design chief François Leboine told Autocar that the first of Fiat’s E-cars is as “ready as the 2CV is”, but that the brand decided it was “not the right moment for us to show what we are doing” – likely so it didn't upstage its French counterpart at its home show.
Leboine suggested that, having now launched larger models in the Grande Panda and Grizzly SUV, Fiat’s priority is to revitalise its city car range.
Although it revealed the Multiplay concept – a Grizzly-sized cross between a pick-up, SUV and MPV – at the Paris show, it also displayed a near-production concept for the Multiplina four-seat quadricycle.
“We are redoing the bottom part of our range,” he said. “It is Pandina today but also 500. The maturity of the 2CV [concept] is evident, and we will follow exactly the same maturity. We will show it at a good moment.”
Although the first of Fiat’s E-cars will sit within the Panda family, it won't necessarily take that name. Belloni revealed that Fiat has trademarked the Koala name, in keeping with Fiat’s scheme of naming different models in the Panda range after different bears.
“Koala now belongs to Fiat,” he said. “We have a Koala, a Panda and a Grizzly.” Indeed, he joked that the only bear name Fiat can't use is Kodiak, because Skoda uses this for its large SUV.
This would clearly distinguish the EV from the combustion-engined Panda, which remains Italy’s best-seller – and the brand has committed to continuing to serve the market for an affordable petrol-powered car.
Speaking to Autocar earlier this year, Fiat Europe boss Gaetano Thorel said: “I need to find a proper answer for my Panda population. We need to find a multi-energy solution.”
Although the new E-car is expected to draw on familiar Panda cues, Belloni ruled out a revival of any previous iterations of the city car, in the same vein as the 2CV. He described it as "a very different approach, not neo-retro".
Leboine referenced an E-car design competition for Italian university students that Fiat ran earlier this year. Public voting awarded victory to the Ippo concept (pictured above), a blocky hatchback reminiscent of Pandas past and present, and suggested that Fiat could borrow cues from it – as well as the runners-up, the Lumo Su Misura and the Fizz.
Fiat has since shown the Ippo in strategic presentations alongside the Multiplina and Grizzly, hinting at the high regard in which it held the proposal.
It also gave seven of the students apprenticeships in its design studio, and four remain with the company.
Leboine said they brought “some [ideas] that we were surprised by, cool ideas that we share”, which have influenced future Fiats.
“We could take some bits and pieces, and now they are working in Fiat and they see things happening, and that’s cool,” he added. “We are quite happy with what we have, but I cannot say more.”