diff --git a/docs/sphinx/source/whatsnew/v0.16.2.rst b/docs/sphinx/source/whatsnew/v0.16.2.rst
index 5893d8bf46..b69a47c514 100644
--- a/docs/sphinx/source/whatsnew/v0.16.2.rst
+++ b/docs/sphinx/source/whatsnew/v0.16.2.rst
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ Bug fixes
   is scalar (:issue:`2881`, :pull:`2882`)
 * :py:func:`pvlib.scaling.wvm` no longer returns all NaNs when ``positions``
   contains a single site (:issue:`2895`, :pull:`2896`)
+* ``import pvlib`` no longer fails on a fresh install without ``packaging``.
+  (:pull:`2941`)
 
 Enhancements
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/pvlib/tools.py b/pvlib/tools.py
index a81306b60c..016a12513f 100644
--- a/pvlib/tools.py
+++ b/pvlib/tools.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 
 import numpy as np
 import pandas as pd
-from packaging.version import Version
+from pandas.util.version import Version
 import zoneinfo