Fiat 500 Lineup Will Add Crossover Next Year

Fiat SpA's expanding 500 city car lineup will add a crossover model the 500X at the end of next year, according to Automotive News Europe.

The new variant will go into production at Fiat's plant in Mirafiori, making the facility the first Italian factory to build a 500 model. The plant is undergoing a $1.3 billion upgrade to make 280,000 crossovers annually.

The base two-door 500 is produced in Tychy, Poland, for Europe and in Toluca, Mexico, for North America.

The 500X will replace Fiat's slow-selling Sedici mini-SUV, also sold as the Suzuki SX4. Those models are made at Suzuki Motor Corp.'s factory in Esztergom, Hungary. The X will be Fiat's version of the mini-Jeep now slated to go into production at Mirafiori in 2014. The little Jeep will replace the Jeep Compass and Patriot crossovers worldwide.

The 500X will join another new variant, the 500L four-door hatchback that Fiat unveiled last month that the Geneva auto show. The five-passenger L, which is about 2.4 inches longer than the base 500, will be made in Kragujevac, Serbia. Both models will share a wider version of the small-car chassis that carries the new Fiat Punto, according to ANE.

The 500L is scheduled to go on sale in Europe in July and in the U.S. early next year. Fiat also plans a slightly longer seven-passenger variant of the 500L exclusively for the European market.