Fiat 500L – first photo

The new Fiat 500L will debut at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show

The Fiat 500L is heading for a debut at the Geneva Motor Show next month, and we have the first official photo of the oversized 500.

We’ve reported a few times recently on what we now know to be the Fiat 500L. It initially seemed that Fiat would use the ElleZero code name for the production car, but we subsequently learnt that, despite only a passing resemblance to the 500, it was to be the Fiat 500L (for long).

When we revealed the new Fiat would be the 500L, the information we got was that it would be just 60mm longer, which didn’t seem remotely enough to try and squeeze up to seven in (for the European 500L). But it turns out the new 500L is actually 594mm longer than its baby sibling, which makes far more sense.

The 500L is actually based on a widened Punto platform, so it’s also 163mm wider than the 500. So although the 500L isn’t huge, it does now seem realistic that Fiat can pass it off as a mini people carrier, even if they realise that Americans will never by something so small that’s said to seat seven, so in the US the 500L will only come as a five-seater.

Engine options in the 500L are to be the new TwinAir two-pot, the 1.4 litre petrol and a 1.3 MultiJet diesel. Fiat say that the 500L is a development of the 600 Multipla, a poor-selling Fiat from the 1960s. Which seems an odd way to herald a new model.

The Fiat 500L will debut at Geneva next month before going on sale across Europe. Fiat has not yet revealed prices for the 500L.

By Cars UK