Fiat Snubs Geneva Motor Show, Dumps A Load Of Concept Cars At Once

This year’s woefully under-attended Geneva Motor Show is taking place as we type, and Fiat, along with the rest of its Stellantis stablemates, is absent from the once-great industry big day out. Instead, it’s had a bit of fun at the show’s expense on its opening day, unveiling a swathe of concept cars on its own terms.

In the video, we see Fiat CEO Olivier Francois at the wheel of a Panda en route to the Geneva Motor Show, pointing out that ‘Geneva’ in Italian is ‘Ginevra’. But – plot twist! – it turns out that rather than Switzerland, he’s heading to the tiny Italian village of Ginevra, where Fiat is putting on its own motor show for some bewildered locals. It makes more sense if you watch it, to be honest.

More pertinent are the concept cars Fiat has shown off. Currently, various region-specific Fiat models are volume sellers in Europe, South America, the Middle East and Africa. The company plans to capitalise on this with the development of a new global, scalable platform that will accept petrol, hybrid or fully electric drivetrains. Whether this will be a Fiat-exclusive platform or shared with some of the other thousand brands under the Stellantis umbrella is unclear.

This modularity allows Fiat, in theory, to produce cars locally for different regions and equip them with whatever form of propulsion regional demand and regulations call for.

The five cars Fiat has shown all draw inspiration from the original Panda of 1980, with highly functional, boxy designs. Naturally, there’s also a heavy focus on sustainability, particularly in the materials used, which include bamboo seat fabrics and recycled plastics. They eschew what Fiat identifies as more polluting parts, including alloy wheels and seat foam, for back-to-basics steelies and simple netting.

These are all very much concept cars, with plenty of whimsical features and design elements that probably won’t make production, but should provide a decent idea of Fiat’s future styling direction.

The first of the five is simply called the City Car, although the fact that it has ‘Panda’ in massive letters on the door probably gives away where Fiat envisions it sitting in its range. Said to be bigger than the current Panda, it has some innovative features like a ‘self-winding’ charging cable. It also brings back Fiat’s old ‘four stripe’ logo.

Its interior previews a new design language which heavily leans into an oval motif inspired by Fiat’s rooftop test track in Lingotto, Turin - you know, the one from The Italian Job. Francois points out that the oval steering wheel probably won’t make production, though. Neither, we suspect, will the skateboard holder in the door.

Next up is the Pick-Up. In Europe, Fiat’s flirtation with pickup trucks begins and ends with the short-lived Fullback, a rebadged Mitsubishi L200. However, the little hatchback-based Strada pickup is a huge seller in South America, particularly Brazil. Fiat says it’s confident a future pickup will replicate this success in other markets. This one’s being pitched as something for active, outdoorsy types, as evidenced by the ample space for surfboards, mountain bikes and, erm, inflatable flamingos.

The next two, the Fastback and SUV, are effectively the Pick-Up concept with two different designs of enclosed rear end. The former is another example of the bafflingly popular ‘coupe crossover’. Fiat already sells a car of this sort under the Fastback name in Brazil. The other is (shock) a more traditional crossover SUV.

Finally, and perhaps the most fanciful, is the Camper. This too is exactly what it sounds like: a rugged-looking overland campervan, with features like an inflatable roof tent and built-in wind turbine.

Fiat says it’ll introduce one model on the new platform every year between 2024 (11 July, specifically) and 2027. We’d bank on the first of these being the long-awaited new Panda.

There’s a lot to be said for the pared-back, easily adaptable approach to car building Fiat wants to pursue. It’s a company at its best when it’s making cheap, simple, characterful cars, and right now, there’s arguably a greater shortage of those on the market than ever.