DRIVEN NEW FIAT GRANDE PANDA

Retro styling is back with a vengeance, but Fiat's answer to the new Renault 5 has substance to match its iconic roots

- Jordan Katsianis

AEX WHAT is it about small Italian cars and the importance of design? Vauxhall doesn't have any pressure to wow people with a Corsa, nor does Toyota with a Yaris. But when a new Panda is on the horizon, Italians are at the ready with their pasta forks and wooden spoons to decry the possible desecration of a national treasure.

For when it comes to cultural icons, they don't get much more important than the Fiat Panda - over 7.8 million of them have been sold through three generations. That means more than twice as many Pandas have been sold as first-generation Fiat 500s, to put its importance into context.

In addition, each generation of Panda has been a simple, unfussy yet masterful execution of both form and function.

Thankfully for Fiat, the new Grande Panda has allayed concerns with a design that has already been granted wide-ranging acclaim. Yet Fiat has gone big with the new Grande Panda, not just in terms of size - this is now a firmly B-segment offering - but also with its charming looks, electric range and aggressive price point.

Fitted with an electric powertrain, it's priced from a touch over £21,000 for the entry-level RED model and just under £24,000 for the fully loaded La Prima we're driving here.

All of which represents the next step in incredible value for the new generation of affordable EVs. A hybrid edition is also available for less, around £2,000 model for model, but here we're driving the all-electric model, and there's plenty to talk about.