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Currently so reliant on the 500 city car for its success, Fiat is launching a wider range of vehicles, based on variants of the 500 and Panda, that can appeal to fleets.
As Gianluca Italia, head of Fiat brand for Europe, recently declared: "We are basing so much on the 500 family but also not forgetting the functionality of the Panda. These are the two souls of our brand."
UK product manager Luca Ragusa put it even more simply: "Emotional is 500, rational is Panda."
Last year saw the 500 range expand with the L (a five-seat mini-MPV), L Trekking (an enhanced traction 4x2 mini-MPV) and MPW (seven-seat compact MPV) that helped the brand's UK sales rise by 20% in 2013 to 60,198.
More significantly, the 20,868 fleet sales figure within that total represented 35% of all Fiat sales and almost doubled its 2012 fleet presence of 13,976 units.
Ragusa told BusinessCar: "We don't want to be just a 500 city car-driven brand, but to have a family of products across more than one model. This was lacking in the past years."
The L contributed 7144 units in just nine months on sale (March-December) with the MPW adding 500 in three.
Panda provided 8200 to the tally and the Punto another 5000 or so, but the majority was still the 500 hatch and convertible with 37,900.
Ragusa said 500 sales could have been even higher, but added: "We don't want to push the 500 more than we're doing as we think the quality of sales, not only quantity, is important.
"It's easy to sell more, especially a car that has good feedback from the market, but then destroy the strategy."
The 500 boasts an excellent 50%-plus RV, but Ragusa wants other models to spread the load to help reach Fiat's 2014 target of 65,000.
To that end, an even more visually rugged and technically capable version of the Panda 4x4 called the Cross goes on sale this autumn, while in 2015 a 500 crossover - tipped to be named the 500X - will launch with 4x4 and 4x2 with traction-plus versions to take on the Nissan Juke and more.
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