Autoline on Autoblog with John McElroy

Filed under: Fiat, Autoline on Autoblog

Fiat Eschews EV’s, Chooses CNG

While every other major automaker in the world is pouring billions of dollars into research for electric vehicles, Fiat doesn’t seem to be all that interested in electric cars. Instead, it’s putting its efforts into producing cars that can run on compressed natural gas. Even more importantly, it’s offering what it calls bi-fuel cars, which can run on both gasoline and CNG.

In fact, the Italian automaker is more bullish on bi-fuel cars than it is on diesels. It prides itself on having the lowest average CO2 emissions of any major automaker in Europe. Low emission ratings are a big deal to European car buyers. And Fiat believes it can continue to maintain its lead with engines that can run on both gasoline and CNG.

Most of Fiat’s sales come from the low-end of the market, tiny A- and B-class cars that don’t cost a lot of money. The people who buy these cars typically can’t even afford to pay the premium to get a diesel engine. And forget about hybrids or electric cars, they’re simply further out of their price range.

Now Fiat thinks it has another idea that could push it far ahead of everyone else when it comes to reducing CO2 emissions. It wants to combine hydrogen gas with compressed natural gas and offer the cleanest burning engines in the industry.

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Autoline on Autoblog with John McElroy originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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