How many variants can you derive from 500? That’s not a math question -- more of a marketing strategy for Fiat. Americans know the Fiat 500 as the neo-retro small car with Italian style -- and that's when few in this country have even bought one. The next relatives of the 500 to arrive off the boat were the cabriolet version and the sporty Abarth.

Maybe the next Fiat to make the Atlantic crossing will be the elongated 500L (pictured, left) unveiled last month at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show. And now an even larger version of the little car, called the 500X, reportedly will head into production next year.

The 500X will ride on a broadened adaptation of Fiat's small-car platform used for the Punto in other markets. Fiat’s Mirafiori plant in Turin, Italy, reportedly will pump out the new crossover, which is a replacement for the company’s Sedici, a rebadged Suzuki SX4 crossover.

Fiat hasn’t confirmed or denied whether the 500X will sold in the U.S. But reports that the 500X will be built alongside a new Jeep crossover (code-named B-CUV) that’s set to launch here in early 2014 make it more likely that the larger 500 will indeed grace our shores.

[Source: Autoblog]