Rumors of Fiat developing a bigger version of the 500 have been circulating around the internet since the retro-styled city car was launched in the summer of 2007.
Fiat recently confirmed the rumors but it did not mention what market segment the car would slot in. A very plausible possibility was a 500 with a MINI Clubman-like body that would have been directly inspired by the 500 Giardiniera from the 1960s.
A source close to Fiat told Holland’s Autoweek that the four-door 500 will be a compact minivan similar in size to the Opel/Vauxhall Meriva and the Citroën C3 Picasso. It will replace two aging and slow-selling models, the Fiat Idea and the Lancia Musa.
The new car is internally called the Elle Zero (L0 in Italian), but it might be called the Multipla when it enters production. The name was introduced in the 1950s on a Fiat 600-based van, and was used more recently on a controversially-styled six-seater minivan.
The Elle Zero will borrow numerous styling cues from the 500, but it will sit on Fiat’s recently-introduced SUSW platform.
On the European market, the Elle Zero should be offered with Fiat’s TwinAir two-cylinder engine, a 1.4 Multiair four-cylinder, and a 1.3 Multijet turbodiesel.
Fiat’s new compact minivan will make its debut at the Geneva Motor Show next March. Production is slated to begin in the summer of 2012 in Fiat’s Kragujeva, Serbia, plant.
According to Autoweek, exporting the Elle Zero to the United States as a 2013 model is not out entirely out of the question. If that happens, it will likely be available exclusively with the 1.4 Multiair engine.
References
1.’Fiat 500 MPV…’ view
