The Fiat 500 of 1957 was an affordable and practical city runabout originally powered by a half-litre, 2-cyl engine. Fifty-three years on, the latest addition to the current 500 range pays homage to that car by also having just two cylinders, but the new TwinAir engine hasn’t come about for sentimental reasons, but for the ultimate in petrol engine efficiency.
Although having performance comparable with the existing 4-cyl 1.4-litre petrol model, and better than the 1.3 MultiJet 500’s, the new 0.9-litre TwinAir 500 beats them both on emissions and fuel consumption: 69mpg combined and 95g/km (or 92g/km with the forthcoming Dualogic transmission). This compares with the 1.4’s 46.3mpg/140g/km and the 1.3’s 67.3mpg/110g/km. Being under 100g/km this of course means zero road tax for the TwinAir as well as further reduced running costs in other areas. That 95g/km figure also makes the TwinAir the world’s greenest non-hybrid petrol-engined car, (by 4g/km at the time of writing). UK TwinAir prices have yet to be announced, but starting at around £11,000 shouldn’t be too far out.
Read the full Fiat 500 TwinAir 85hp road test
