Paris Preview: methane-powered Fiats
by Noah Joseph on Sep 17th 2006 at 7:03PM 
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:
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
nadiutta 2:40PM (1/23/2009)
I have a friend in Italy who installs methane tanks in cars. My father did it in a wolksvagen and in a mercedes. But you can do it in almost any kind of car you want. It's a very common thing in Italy. But.... you can find the place to fuel up! I wish we had the same opportunity here in USA..
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Barney 8:04PM (9/17/2006)
Just where do these cars fuel up? In North America, the tanks would remain empty.
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Jimmy 9:11PM (9/17/2006)
So the methane is the same thing as Compressed Natural Gas, no ? So this is a CNG/ethanol/gasoline trifuel car ?
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Calibe 9:16PM (9/17/2006)
Hey bob! we got the car for you. Just hook the pipe up to your fart factory and away you go!
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Mal Fuller 11:32PM (9/17/2006)
"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."
What's going on sale in Italy beginning in January, methane, conventional gasoline or the oddly-named Panda Panda?
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Ayaz 2:28AM (9/18/2006)
Nice and good looking car.
Pakcar
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Ryan 3:20AM (9/18/2006)
As carbon dioxide is absorbed when the plant crops used to make bioethanol are grown, its CO2 impact is even less than that of methane, making the Multipla Multipla, sorry, Multi-eco, even greener than the Panda Panda.
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Juston Garland 3:43AM (9/18/2006)
The concept is excellent but the looks of the car can be improved.
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x23 4:55AM (9/18/2006)
"Pig shit. The lights, the motors, the vehicles, all run by a high-powered gas called methane. And methane cometh from pig shit."
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carlo 6:41AM (9/18/2006)
In some countries of europe is quite common to use LPG or methane powered cars (in the city where I live there are 2 methane fuel resellers and 12 LPG resellers).
almost ANY gasoline car can be turned in a dual-fuel car (cng+gasoline or lpg + gasoline). it is not rocket science: we are doing it since 30 years ago. (Chevrolet and Chrysler do offer this conversion for ALL the models sold here... from the matiz to the Escalade, for example).
there are 2 main reasons for paying 2000 euros for this conversion:
1) CNG costs of 1/4 of gasoline. LPG costs 1/2 of gasoline.
2) circulation of cng/lpg cars is always allowed, also during "green sundays".
in other words: if you own a < EURO 4 car you can convert it to CNG or GPL in order to have a car that is considered "environment friendly" and is not subject to blocks during "green sundays".
there are several producers of these conversion kits.
this is the conversion kit I installed on my hyundai tiburon 2.7 V6 (which is considered a VERY expensive car to mantain here, if you want to keep using it with gasoline): http://www.landirenzo.com/prodotti/scheda_sistema_gpl07.html.
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Barney 1:01AM (9/20/2006)
Methane gas can be made from fermentation but is usualy drilled for in coal beds. I had been approached for drilling on my own property. To many problems are associated with it and I declined. Propane (LPG) is common for vehicle fuel in Canada. It's the conversion that costs big bucks. Presently LPG sells for 61.9 cents per liter and gas $1.03 in my neighbourhood. The conversion tops $4700 with no tax incentives on it. Even at 250 Kms a day, I can't justify it. Besides the range on the available tanks would require a fillup daily.
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Folco 7:49AM (9/20/2006)
I applaud the idea of multiple-fuel cars, but I must say that I never thought that Fiat could make the Multipla even UGLIER that it already was.
But after all, what looks would you expect from a car that can run on gas produced by excrements? ;-)
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Brandon 6:14PM (10/24/2006)
It may seem crude to say a car runs on excrement gas, but it's much less crude than dino juice. Italy actually has a few hundred thousand methane cars on its roads. Methane can also be produced from biomaterial, anything that is biodegradable. It's like ideal meets reality: waste goes out and a valuable resource comes in.
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auto me 10:46PM (12/15/2006)
the design of this car is a lot like the smart car that is very popular in the EU
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