Stellantis dumped a product onslaught on investors yesterday. Alongside the return of the 2CV? A new bear. The Fiat Grizzly. It is less hype-worthy than the tiny retro classic but it matters more for the brand’s survival. Fiat needs size. They have it only in vans and microcars.
Small cars don’t grow people
Right now, European Fiats are… small. The 500. The Panda. The Grande Panda. The 600. All under 4.2 meters. The biggest thing you can actually live in is the Ulysse minivan. It feels limiting. The Grizzly changes the geometry.
It comes in two flavors. A normal SUV, practical and upright. And a “coupe SUV,” which means a sloping rear that eats headroom for style. Smart.
The images hint at kinship. Look closely and you see the Opel Frontera and the Citroen C3 Aircross staring back. It shares DNA. Likely shares length too, maybe even a bit shorter than the 4.4-meter Frontera. It slots into a gap.
The C3 Aircross and Grenada share seats—sometimes seven. The Grizzly? Who knows. Maybe five. Maybe six. Silence is deafening here.
The bones are Stellantis standard stuff. The Smart Car platform. It takes petrol, mild-hybrids, or EVs without flinching.
So what is under the hood? Logic says the Grizzly borrows from its cousins. The 48V mild-hybrids usually pack a 1.2-liter turbo three. It punches out 81kW or a punchier 107kW if you need it. There is also a basic 74kW option on the Citroen side, stripped of the electric help. Pure analog.
For the electric set? An 83kW motor fronts the drive. The battery is 44kWh. Range hovers around 400 kilometers WLTP. Nothing wild. But enough to ignore gas stations most of the week.
Late to the party?
Production models hit the 2026 Paris Motor Show in October. They will share the spotlight with the 2CV concept. A curious pairing. The ancient icon next to the bulky modern bear.
Stellantis wants sixty new cars by 2030. This is their FaSTLAne plan. Speed matters. The EV 2CV starts building in 2028. The old Panda, launched way back in 2004—wait, the text said 2011 but everyone knows the old one is ancient—gets a replacement then too. A Fiat sibling to the Citroen.
Jeep, Ram, Dodge. Chrysler too. The Dutch automaker is throwing everything at the wall.
Is the Grizzly the future? Or just another step in the right direction? It pushes the brand upmarket a bit. Higher prices. Better interiors hopefully.
The market waits. Always waiting.
