The Herald - The Herald Magazine
First drive: Fiat 500 hybrid
AS WE swung around the ancient Italian city of Bologna it was immensely satisfying to experience how natural the Fiat 500 felt. It swept round corners, squeezed between vans in narrow little back streets and nipped deftly into the outside lane when we had suddenly to turn left.
It was easy to see why this pretty little Cinquecento is the city car of choice of thousands of stylish young – and older – Italians.
Bologna is the gourmet capital of Italy and we were making our way into the city from FICO (Fabbrica Italiana Contadina), a massive showcase on the outskirts of the city for the best of Italian produce. That includes cold meats, wine, preserves, cheese, beer, vinegar, ice-cream and, of course, pasta.
People come from all over the country to eat in the many restaurants, all serving the finest food.
We were leaving that behind to drive into Bologna proper, passing through the Piazza XX Settembre and the lovely Piazza dei Martiri before bursting into the sunny and open Piazza San Francesco with its magnificent church.
There was the old food market, the Piazza Maggiore and the famous Due Torri – all fascinating reminders of Bologna’s rich heritage.
In contrast we were driving an Italian car that represents the future. For this was not just any Fiat 500, this was the first ever hybrid 500, a car designed by Fiat to lead rightly and properly to the first ever all-electric 500, which is coming down the production line.
It is indeed green too. Even the paintwork on the Launch Edition we were driving is green, a new shade called Green Dew – although I much prefer the Italian name, Verde Rugiada.
It is subtle and elegant and the colour is continued inside, highlighting the dash. In this Launch Edition you can choose from a soft top or a glass roof.
But this is not what the new hybrid is all about. This new 500 – and its stablemate the much-loved Panda which also gets the hybrid treatment – offers a 1.0-litre three cylinder engine delivering 70PS.
This is paired with an electric motor powered by a lithium-ion battery.
The battery allows the electric motor to assist the conventional engine at start up and indeed when an extra bit of power is needed – but since this is not a plug-in hybrid, the 500 also regenerates power for the battery as you drive.
Chief engineer Carlo de Marino described the three ways as e-coasting, e-braking and e-sailing. When you take your foot off the brake to decelerate you recoup energy. It is even fiercer when you brake and there is also the option to throw the car into neutral, for example as you come up to traffic lights,
for more regeneration. The whole lot is paired to a six speed manual gearbox that is smooth and slick. The result is a car that offers fewer emissions and greater mileage.
And then there is Fiat’s part in the innovative Seaqual Initiative.
The 500 has seats that are made from 90 per cent recycled landfill materials and ten per cent recycled sea waste.
Plastics from the sea are transformed into polyethylene terephthalate flakes that are woven with natural and recycled materials to produce a Seaqual yearn from which the seats are made.
Fiat use 1.5kg of recycled plastic for each seat or 61.5 plastic bottles. If they sell 100,000 cars they will have used 6million bottles and cleared up an area of sea waste the size of Wales. Impressive!
The Cinquecento is small and sporty but most of all fun to drive and, in this latest model, doing its bit for the environment.
Amazingly the entry level Pop model comes in at just £12,665, rising up through the trim levels to this, the very desirable Launch Edition. The new Fiat 500 is a green car with very green credentials.