Paris Preview: methane-powered Fiats

In addition to the higher-output Panda Sport, Fiat will be showing two new methane-powered vehicles at the Paris show at the end of the month. Over the past year, across Europe, Fiat has sold 24,000 methane-powered cars; the major advantage being reduced CO2 emissions.

The rather oddly-named Panda Panda (shown) is a flexible-fuel vehicle that can run on either methane or conventional gasoline, going on sale in Italy beginning January. Using the floor-plan from the four-wheel-drive Panda but driving only through the front wheels, the supplemental methane tanks are placed where the 4WD mechanicals would be, giving the Panda Panda the bonus of increased range.

The Multipla Multi-eco concept, meanwhile, runs on methane, gasoline or E85 bioethanol. Like the Panda Panda, the methane is stored in separate tanks, while the main tank takes either gas or bioethanol, leaving the ECU to switch modes automatically according to the fuel used.

We're still waiting for our flying DeLorean that runs on either plutonium or garbage, with a flux capacitor pumping out 1.21 gigawatts!

(More pics of the Panda Panda after the jump.)

[Sources: Fiat, Autocar]

Fiat Panda Panda:

Fiat Panda Multi-Eco:

Fiat Multipla Multi-Eco: