Fiat launches 500 two-pot

IT was revealed at the Geneva motor show in March and now Fiat has fitted its new two-cylinder TwinAir engine into the diminutive 500 in Italy, but not for Australia.

Designed specifically to meet CO2 emissions limits within Europe’s carbon-based tax regime, which has so far not been replicated in Australia, Ateco says the high-tech new two-pot is too expensive to replace the 500’s entry-level engines in Australia.

They include the 51kW/102Nm 1.2-litre four-cylinder petrol engine that powers the base 500 1.2 Pop manual, which opens the Australian range at $22,990 drive-away, and the 74kW/131Nm 1.4-litre petrol four, which costs $24,990 drive-away in the 500 1.4 Pop Dualogic.

Designed by Fiat Powertrain Technologies (FPT), Italy’s newest engine combines a version of Fiat’s patented MultiAir induction system with a new downsized 875cc twin-cylinder engine in the born-again 500, the 500,000th example of which rolled off the Fiat Auto plant at Tychy in Poland in late March.



The result is the Fiat 500 TwinAir, powered by a turbocharged inline twin-cylinder engine mounted transversely up front, which delivers a claimed 62.5kW @ 5500rpm (more than the 500’s current 1.2 but less than the 1.4) and 145Nm of torque at 1900rpm – enough to top both of the 500’s current petrol engines.

For the record, the Euro 5 emissions-compatible engine, which has slightly long-stroke (80.5 x 86.0mm bore x stroke) cylinder dimensions and comes with variable intake valve lift but not direct-injection technology, also features an ‘ECO’ mode, in which performance is restricted to 57kW and 100Nm.

That’s about the same as the 1.2, which is currently on back-order and temporarily unavailable in Australia because demand exceeds supply.

Fitted as standard with Fiat’s Start&Stop idle-stop function, the 0.9-litre turbo-twin 500 offers claimed 0-100km/h acceleration in 11.0 seconds and top speed of 173km/h.

Fiat says that, as a manual, the 500 TwinAir returns average combined fuel consumption of 4.1 litres per 100km and CO2 emissions of 95 grams per kilometre – a claimed 30 per cent less than an engine with similar performance – while the Dualogic transmission version lowers those marks to 4.0L/100km and 92g/km.

That makes the DOHC TwinAir engine both 23 per cent more powerful than the two-valve 1.2 and 30 per cent more economical than the four-valve 1.4, as well as 23 per cent shorter and 10 per cent lighter than a comparable four-cylinder engine,.

As such, Fiat says the TwinAir engine is readily adaptable to hybrid and methane injection technologies, which will be fitted next.