Source: Fiat - Press releases (2) and brief video after the jump.
500L: A FIAT DESIGN APPROACH
- A ‘design book' to recount the creative experience behind the 500L project
- Iconicity and ‘space efficiency', the cardinal points of the new Fiat model
After the world preview at the Geneva
Motor Show, here today is the design of the new Fiat 500L viewed through
the publication of "500L, a Fiat Design Approach", the exclusive volume
that provides an opportunity to get to know an extraordinary creative
experience, sharing in the sense and reasoning behind the whole project.
There is a common thread in the Fiat
story that binds different moments and experiences, a journey that has
seen the contribution of personalities animated by a profound awareness
and capacity to interpret the evolution of the motorcar.
From Dante Giacosa to the new course
undertaken by Fiat Design under the guidance of Roberto Giolito, there
is a traceable constant commitment to preparing products linked by a
vast wealth of technical and design experience and, above all, aimed at
safeguarding that peculiar "vocation for invention" recognized as one of
the reasons behind the success of Italian design throughout the world.
From the 1956 600 Multipla - paid
respect by the 500L project in dialectic terms through the reproduction
of certain "archetypical" features for versatility of use, but also its
particular "morphological" roots - to the New 500 in 1957, from the 127
in 1972 to the 1980 Panda, from the Uno of 1983 to the 1998 Multipla.
To understand the most radical and profoundly innovative elaborations
there is a clear sequence of "firsts", of true and proper landmarks in
the Fiat brand's identity,
The route undertaken with the 500
project that, for Fiat, has represented an important phase of
contextualization for its brand, now finds a natural and coherent
extension in a "multi-purpose" vehicle like the 500L, once more
soliciting the public's attention and the desire to know the successive
developments of a newly planned range. The recognisable physiognomy of
the Fiat 500L, marked by a body shape without sharp edges and tight
lines to privilege "sweeter" shapes, on the other hand, proves strongly
evocative of "semantic" values, referring to a "pacific" and
nonaggressive object that "transmits" popularity and wishes a more
harmonic aspect for the urban landscape and environment.
The Fiat 500L project
The Fiat 500L is the fruit of a journey
during which Fiat designers had to pit themselves against the themes of
technological feasibility, brand strategy and the studies that try to
predict the type of future relationship we will have with the car; a
type of approach that tries to go beyond the form-function relationship
to make the user and their necessities the centre of attention.
In effect, looking at the new 500L, one
becomes aware of how the iconicity, or rather the car's strength and
design personality, creates a true matrix of the entire project. The
objective is to continue in the process of brand identification that,
riding on the Fiat 500's wave of success, has gained wide scale market
consensus.
Developed within the ambit of a new Fiat
platform for segment B, the Fiat 500L is an innovative car that
addresses a wider and more varied clientele, aiming to establish
superior standards in terms of interior space and comfort. And so is
born an extremely functional vehicle, capable of "dialoguing" with the
user and offering a quality to appreciate over time.
From here the theme of "space efficiency", one of the cardinal points around which the Fiat Group designers have worked in defining the interior of the 500L. A driver and passenger compartment that is characterised by its large size - for example, in the anterior part the maximum width is 1,456 mm (measured at shoulder height) while the height, from seat to imperial, is 1,034 mm (in the rear the measurements are 1,387 mm and 993 mm respectively) - its general layout that foresees numerous container spaces, an almost 400 litre luggage compartment and by the dashboard, specially studied to gather the instrument panel and main controls of the audio and informatics devices in two distinct but adjoining areas.
From here the theme of "space efficiency", one of the cardinal points around which the Fiat Group designers have worked in defining the interior of the 500L. A driver and passenger compartment that is characterised by its large size - for example, in the anterior part the maximum width is 1,456 mm (measured at shoulder height) while the height, from seat to imperial, is 1,034 mm (in the rear the measurements are 1,387 mm and 993 mm respectively) - its general layout that foresees numerous container spaces, an almost 400 litre luggage compartment and by the dashboard, specially studied to gather the instrument panel and main controls of the audio and informatics devices in two distinct but adjoining areas.
One of the peculiarities of the 500L,
pursued since the first layout of the packaging, is the extensive
internal volume obtained thanks to a meticulous compacting of the
mechanical parts shared between designers and engineers. If the general
layout of the vehicle's architecture therefore follows the "cab
forward" principles, it is from here that the reduction of the bodywork
and front bonnet section derives, to the advantage of the interior space
- in particular at the height of the belt line and roof - and, above
all, the "empathic" vocation of the 500L's design to exalt the overall
ergonomics of the car. A readily attemptable ergonomics thanks to a
wide view of the outside and the luminosity of the driver and passenger
compartment, guaranteed by both the largest roof in its category, with
1.5 m2 of surface glass, and the opportunely split and slimmed down
windscreen uprights with their obvious advantages, also within the
profile of active and passive safety.
Fiat 500L: "techno-logical" Innovation
Using the car means being able to make
use of its functional performance and, in it, find all those material
and immaterial components that can facilitate the approach to life. The
progressive acceleration of recent years has pushed technology towards
becoming an element that cannot be renounced, and ever more often one
trusts in the functionality offered by all manner of devices as a
reassuring fact that is inseparable from psycho-physical well-being.
The Fiat 500L contains a multitude of
technological content, from the structure of the safety cell with its
anterior double uprights, designed in line with the standards in force
in the USA regarding crash tests and specific dimensions of the
materials employed, to a new floor that will be shared with the next
generation of models. Similarly the network connection systems,
navigation and infotainment, utilize suitably simplified
"human-friendly" interfaces and a specific self-diagnosis apparatus.
The Fiat Group Automobiles Colour &
Material area has expressly carried out a specific study for the 500L
aimed at the classification of possible reference scenarios,
investigated to restore appropriate formulations to the sensorial
experience. In addition to a personalized range of options that
envisage over thirty chromatic couplings for the painting of body and
roof, this research has allowed the application of technologies and
production processes that further increase the quality and value of the
physical, tactile and visual properties of materials, individual
fittings and the finishing.
Release:
Fiat 500L: world preview at the Geneva Motor Show
- The new model in the 500 range
- In Europe in the last quarter of 2012
Fiat presents the
first official images of the 500L, the new model which will have its
world preview at the International Geneva Motor Show on 6 March this
year.
500L - the L stands for 'Large' - is the
new addition to the 500 range, which, following the Abarth and Cabrio
versions, furthers the brand's strategy, with the aim of extending its
offer by introducing models in a position to satisfy different types of
customers.
With the 'L', the 500 expands and grows together with customers, to accommodate new experiences and needs once more.
With MPV passenger space combined with
the feel of a small SUV on the road and the restrained dimensions and
efficiency of a B segment car, the new Fiat model defies the
conventional distinctions between the various segments, combining the
typical characteristics of different categories in order to create a
distinctive alternative to the traditional B and C segments.
With the 500L, the Fiat brand
demonstrates its creative spirit once more: a marriage of functionality
and emotion, it features a 5-seater single-volume structure which is 414
cm long, 178 cm wide and 166 cm high. It is a further development of
the concept of 'cab forward' introduced by Fiat with the 600 Multipla, a
precursor to the concept of the compact people carrier.
Produced at the Fiat factory in
Kragujevac, Serbia, 500L is a 'first car' for those who won't settle for
anything less than Italian style, the versatility that comes from a
functional design and engine technology that sets the bar in terms of
efficiency.
The Fiat 500L will be introduced to
Europe in the last quarter of 2012, with an engine range which will
initially comprise two petrol engines (TwinAir and 1.4-litre) and a
turbodiesel engine (1.3 MultiJet II) and the most advanced,
state-of-the-art technology from Fiat Group Automobiles.
