Fiat reveals the new 500L before its official Geneva Motor Show preview.
Following up on a report in TheDetroitBureau.com earlier in the week, Fiat has confirmed it will unveil a larger version of its pint-sized Cinquecento at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show.
To be called the Fiat 500L, the 5-door hatchback will arrive in U.S. dealer showrooms in 2013, the maker confirmed. The American version will be offered only in a 5-seat configuration, but buyers in Europe and other parts of the world will be able to order the new 500L in a 7-seat layout, as well.
Short for “Large,” the 500L will still be one of the smallest models on U.S. roads, measuring just over 163 inches, nose-to-tail. That’s about 2.5 inches more than the current Fiat 500 Coupe. And it still lands the new offering squarely into the B-, or minicar, category.
Despite the extra doors, the new Fiat 500L will be just 2.5 inches longer than the current 500 Coupe.
While Fiat is saving many of the details for the maker’s Geneva press preview, sources confirm there will be a variety different powertrains available, depending on market, including a 2-cylinder, 900cc version of the Fiat MultiAir engine, a 1.3 liter diesel, and the 1.4-liter gasoline MultiAir currently used in the American version of the standard wheelbase Fiat 500, which currently makes 101 horsepower. It’s unclear if Fiat will try to beef that up to add some extra muscle to what would be a larger and heavier 500L.
The debut of the Fiat 500L will come on the heels of the 500 Abarth Edition, a sporty version of the Cinquecento that bumps the horsepower count from 101 to 168. Fiat is hoping that the sporty model will do for the brand’s U.S. sales what the John Cooper Works variants did for Mini, generating both incremental sales while also putting a halo around the brand itself.
Fiat has been struggling with lackluster demand. The first versions of the 500 missed their original U.S. sales target of 50,000 by roughly 50%, last year, and Chrysler/Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne recently declared that something in the 25,000 range is more realistic for this year, as well, even with new products coming.
The maker formally unveiled the Abarth edition – which bumps the pony count to 168 – at this month’s Detroit Auto Show. A battery version of the Fiat 500 is also coming in the months ahead.
“Clearly, a year ago, it was difficult to get a clear sense of where the brand would go,” Olivier Francois, Fiat’s global chief executive, told TheDetroitBureau.com. “We just didn’t know.”
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But in a recent interview, the French-born executive insisted that with the addition of new product the 50,000 sales target it readily attainable. He pointed to the growth of rival small car maker Mini, which recently announced plans to boost its own line-up to 10 different models over the next several years.
Fiat has a number of challenges, however. It landed second to last in the latest Consumer Reports Auto-Brand Perception Survey, barely above the now-defunct Saab.
Simply gaining attention in a crowded automotive market hasn’t been easy, acknowledged Francois, telling TheDetroitBureau.com that prior to the maker’s first ad campaign launching last autumn barely 10% of American car buyers were aware of the brand. That has risen to nearly a third despite the controversy over the use of pop star Jennifer Lopez in the Fiat TV commercials.
According to Automotive News correspondent Luca Ciferri Fiat will produce the 500L at a plant in Kragujevac, Serbia. The factory once built the much-maligned Yugo. Fiat is investing close to $1 billion to modernize the facility.
Yet another new all-new model will be added to Fiat’s U.S. line in the next several years, executives tell TheDetroitBureau.com. Details are sketchy but Fiat global brand boss Francois stressed that the maker will focus exclusively on the B-segment of the market, which would suggest that it will only be slightly larger than the current 500 or the upcoming 500L.