Fiat and Volkswagen prove small is beautiful. Fleet Voice
Wednesday 27 October 2010. Fleet Voice Column.
Are you small-minded? Me, I’m prepared to be swayed and after driving the Fiat 500 TwinAir it’s fair to say thinking small is the way forward.
Downsizing engines is becoming very fashionable among car companies and Fiat is the latest to join this ever-growing fray. Volvo has shown the way with larger cars courtesy of its DRIVe versions of the V70 and strangely appealing S80. Then there’s Volkswagen with its Passat 1.4 TSI, which is another small-engined car that punches well above its weight.
The benefits for company car drivers are clear: lower emissions mean cheaper benefit-in-kind payments and improved economy simply makes life less expensive for all concerned. Anyone worried about performance shrinking with the ever decreasing capacities should not panic, Captain Mainwaring.
After trying the Volvo S80 1.6 DRIVe, we came away impressed at the overall package but with the feeling that this was a lot of car for the small turbodiesel to cope with. We liked it – a lot – but the S80 has a limited appeal in a market sector brimming with talent. However, a stint in the facelifted Passat 1.4 TSI last week leaves us in no doubt that larger cars can perform more than adequately with small cc engines.
If you had not known the Passat used a 1.4-litre turbo engine, you could easily have been fooled into thinking it was a decent 1.8- or 2.0-litre motor. Compared to the wheezy old 1.6-litre petrol engine used in the Passat, the new baby vroomer is light years ahead.
Speaking of light, Fiat’s new TwinAir engine is not just small in capacity but in size and weight. It tips the scales at just 85kg and is around two-thirds the physical size of the 1.2-litre petrol engine also offered in the 500.
The loss of weight has serious bolt-on implications for the economy and emissions of the 500. Fiat rightly boasts the 500 TwinAir is the cleanest mass-production petrol engine in the world right now with 95g/km carbon dioxide emissions. Opt for the DualLogic automatic gearbox with manual override and emissions drop to just 92g/km. Experience says the DualLogic gearbox is best avoided for its clunky shifts, but even sticking with the five-speed manual it’s possible to record nigh on 70mpg average economy.
Of course, the big novelty of Fiat’s TwinAir engine is it not only downsizes capacity to just 875cc, or around half the average engine capacity of cars in the UK, it does it with just two cylinders. In a world where most car drivers don’t poke around under the bonnet, the number of cylinders a car can count has become less important.
However, the 500 TwinAir’s two-pot engine is hugely significant and makes it possibly the most important car of 2010, even allowing for the likes of the Nissan Leaf arriving on the scene. The reason the Fiat is so important is it shows without a shadow of doubt that not only small capacity engines but ones with fewer cylinders can power a car more than acceptably.
A test drive in the Fiat 500 TwinAir feels like this funky little car has finally got the engine it’s been waiting for. It has bags of low-speed oomph, is smooth when cruising yet retains just enough twin-cylinder character and appeal to give it a truly appealing character.
Just as important as its arrival in UK and European showrooms for sale, the TwinAir concept is massively significant for what Fiat has planned for it. This is not a one-off engine intended to help Fiat get its average emissions down to the 95g/km average demanded by European law by 2020. No, the TwinAir is the first of a whole family of engines, with a lower powered but even cleaner and greener 65bhp version due alongside a more potent 105bhp unit. The TwinAir’s project leader also happily says an Abarth version of the 875cc TwinAir engine is on the cards and will come with around 125bhp but also adds that more power is possible from the engine.
On top of all this, Fiat’s engineers are working on hybrid versions of the 500 that will use the TwinAir engine. Its compact size frees up space for an electric motor, though Fiat reckons it will stick with the mild hybrid concept rather than more radical offerings such as the Vauxhall Ampera.
As if this wasn’t enough, a TwinAir turbodiesel is also progressing from drawing board to production line. This shows Fiat has big plans for the TwinAir as a worldwide force and it will also make the engine available to other car makers, which would include Ford that shares the 500’s platform with its Ka.
All of this small thinking and downsizing may seem like a distant idea at the moment, but as company users we need to look forward. This is going to be big, huge, massive and we need to embrace it sooner rather than later if we want to avoid some of the less than practical alternative ideas for powering cars that could be foisted upon us.
Be big, be bold: think small.
Alisdair Suttie
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