Fiat Prices 500 Minivan at $19,100

Fiat SpA's 500L, a stretched four-door version of its 500 city car, has gone on sale in Europe at a starting price of $19,100. Deliveries will begin this autumn; the car is expected to debut in the U.S. early next year.

Fiat has capacity to produce about 40,000 of 500Ls per year at its plant in Kragujevac, Serbia. The company says it would be "unfair and unprofessional" to set a sales target for the new model because the European market is so uncertain.

The five-passenger 500L is 60 mm/2.4 inches longer than the base 500 coupe, which Fiat makes in Tychy, Poland, and Toluca, Mexico. Fiat plans a slightly longer seven-passenger variant exclusively for the European market next year.

Fiat plans to eventually sell the 500L in more than 100 countries worldwide. An SUV variant called the Trekking will launch in Europe and the U.S. in 2014.

All three of the larger 500 models will share a platform with Fiat's revised Punto minicar. In Europe, the 500L will debut with a choice among three engines: a 1.3-liter turbocharged diesel that makes 85 hp, a 900-cc two-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine rated at 105 hp and a naturally aspirated gasoline unit that produces 95 hp.