Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Couple of days ago, I reported on a upcoming Fiat Doblo but it turns out that "Doblo" is in fact a smaller commercial van. Fiat's Turkish affiliate Tofas is in the final stages of testing a new compact delivery vehicle/people mover that's expected to go on sale next spring in European markets.
The passenger version of the Panda based people mover may be called the Fiat Fiorino, which ran unofficial photos of an engineering prototype. Other names that were given to this van were Panorama, Ludo and Mini-Cargo.
The small van is being jointly developed with PSA Peugeot Citroën under the code name Minicargo and will be marketed as a smaller, less expensive companion to the Fiat Doblo. Eventually, it could be built and sold in various markets around the world, including China, India and Latin America.
Equipped with a choice of 4-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, the Fiorino will compete with the Citroen and Peugeot variants which is scheduled to reach European dealers in late Spring 2008.