Fiat to keep selling current-generation Panda alongside new model

Fiat has announced it aims to sell in 2012 230,000 Pandas from both the current and new generation of the minicar.

“Next year we plan to sell 180,000 to 190,000 units of the new Panda and the rest will be Classic models,” Gianni Coda, Fiat’s chief operating office for Europe, Middle East and Africa, was quoted as saying by Automotive News Europe.

Coda said the new Panda will be priced from €10,200 at the start of European sales in February 2012. The current-generation Panda, which will be renamed the Panda Classic, will have a starting price of €8,500 in Italy, down from today’s starting price of €10,250. A segment leader since 2004, the Panda will face tough competition from VW’s Up, which is priced at €10,600 in Italy.

In the first nine months of the year, Panda sales fell 22 percent to 140,285 units in Europe. If the target set for Panda in 2012 will be hit, the two variants will almost equal Panda’s total European sales from 2010. The current Panda enjoyed its best sales year in 2009, when 299,992 units were sold in Europe.

The new Panda is build at the Pomigliano d’Arco plant, near Naples, a former Alfa Romeo site. The refurbished facility has an annual capacity of 270,000 units.

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• Fiat CEO praises Pomigliano plant, promises more investments in Italy
• Fiat Downgraded by S&P
• Report: Alfa Romeo Giulietta wagon in the works
• New Fiat Panda launched in Italy – starts at EUR12,200
• Fiat to produce 300,000 fewer vehicles in 2012 in Europe
• Fiat Panda spied in Italy
• Fiat denies CEO said group could leave Italy