Mini and Fiat have been found to be the cleanest car manufacturers in a league table which provides the first comprehensive analysis of overall emission performance rather than just focusing on CO2 emissions.

Producing by website, Clean Green Cars, the league table analyses the carmakers’ performances across three environmental factors; CO2 emissions, NOx emissions and particulate emissions to produce a more rounded conclusion of environmental performance.

Explains Richard Bremner, editor of Clean Green Cars: “CO₂ is hugely important, but it is not the whole story. A car that is good for CO₂ can be bad for other pollutants and vice versa.”

The website analysed the performance of every car sold in the UK so far this year to complete its findings, correlating sales and pollution data to produce a sales-weighted performance for all manufacturers.

Fiat and Mini came joint first in overall performance across the three pollution sectors, while Toyota lead in producing the least CO2 emissions and Suzuki came top in minimising NOX emissions. For particulates (small sooty particles, responsible for causing respiratory problems and long term lung disease), Mini and Fiat once again lead the way, proving two of the least harmful manufacturers.

Thanks to the car industry’s focus on CO2 emissions, the website found that while CO₂ performance varied by a factor of less than three from best to worst, NOx varies by a factor of seven and particulates by a factor of more than 50. In the hall of shame, Jeep and Land Rover were found to have the worst environmental performances overall.

Overall ranking was calculated by adding the positions for all three criteria and then dividing by three to obtain an average. The reason there is a ranking for pollution rather than a single overall figure is that there is no generally accepted way of comparing damage from CO₂ to damage from NOx or particulates. They cause different problems in different circumstances. By creating a ranking, Clean Green Cars combined manufacturers performance into a meaningful league table, but leave it open to people to concentrate on whichever measure they regard as the most important.

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Fiat has added to its environmental accolades with a new award announced for its eco:Drive fuel-saving technology.

The drive system – this time in eco:Drive Fleet form scooped the Green Development prize in the BusinessCar Techies 2010, announced yesterday by BusinessCar magazine.

The judging panel’s attention was particularly drawn to eco:Drive Fleet’s potential fuel savings of up to 15 per cent, its CO₂ emissions reductions, and the fact that mileage data can be measured for all fleet vehicles and displayed by vehicle or driver, either individually or collectively.

Launched in March this year, eco:Drive Fleet works through the Blue&Me information system, developed by Fiat and Microsoft, and found in all new Fiat vehicles. Plugging a USB stick into the Blue&Me port lets the system record information about the fleet vehicle user’s driving style, offering suggestions on how to improve efficiency further by reappraising methods.

“Fiat’s eco:Drive Fleet system really impressed the judges, with the system’s ability to make a real difference to fuel use, and therefore a business’s running costs, key to its victory,” says Paul Barker, BusinessCar Editor.

“The clever use of technology – with drivers or companies able to download the data direct from the car – is exactly the sort of application that the BusinessCar Techies seeks to reward, ” he added.

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The Fiat 500 electric vehicle project, seen as a crucial part of Chrysler’s revival, has hit a stumbling block with the car manufacturer losing its battery supplier.

According to reports in the Detroit Free Press, A123 Systems has withdrawn from the project after reporting a second quarter loss of $34.2million – an increase from its loss of $21.9million just one year earlier.

Katie Hepler, a Chrysler spokeswoman, confirmed that A123 will not be supplying the battery systems for the Fiat 500 electric vehicle commenting that it had been a good development partner and its support has been appreciated.

The original partnership between the companies was announced in March with the plan to produce an undisclosed number of Fiat 500 electric vehicles in 2012 at the Toluca, Mexico, assembly plant.

According to A123 CEO David Vieau, a competing supplier came forward who was willing to “buy the business below current market price in a program that has significantly diminished in scale from our earlier expectation.”

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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

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After previewing a two-cylinder TwinAir engine at Geneva earlier this year, Fiat has now debuted the engine in the Fiat 500.

The petrol-fuelled 85hp, 900cc turbo two-cylinder includes a small-sized turbine that helps to minimise transient response times while keeping maximum power levels high. Thanks to a start and stop facility as standard, the engine manages to offer 23 per cent more power and 30 per cent better performance when compared to the 1.2litre 8v engine.

Its performance capabilities are highly respectable – it can reach a top speed of 108mph and accelerate from 0-100km/h in 11 seconds. Its fuel consumption figures are 57mpg and 95g/km of CO2 emissions.

To further emphasise the engine’s green credentials, the Fiat 500 with TwinAir 85hp also comes with an ECO button allowing two drive modes to be selected – normal and ECO. When in ECO mode, torque delivery is reduced to 100Nm at 1,750rpm to minimise consumption while promoting a driving style better suited to city traffic. The steering is lighter and the Dualogic strategy also switches to ECO mode to further optimise fuel economy.

When compared to a four-cylinder of equal performance, the new engine is shorter and lighter which opens the way for further developments including hybrid technology combinations.

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“The single most innovative engine technology to appear in the last 12 months” – that was the rousing proclamation of the Fiat 1.4l Multiair Turbo, which has scooped the title of Best New Engine of 2010.

Part of the International Engine of the Year Awards, the engine was selected thanks in part to its electrohydraulic system that independently controls each cylinder’s inlet air charge. This means that, depending on the driving situation, there are five main modes of inlet valve timing and lift, with MultiAir enabling variable control of the inlet valves.

Its system allows for increases in both power and torque while also reducing fuel consumption and harmful emissions. According to Fiat Powertrain Technologies, compared to a traditional petrol engine of the same displacement, a MultiAir unit can offer 10 per cent more power, 15 per cent more torque and yet improve fuel economy by up to 10 per cent and reduce emissions such as CO2 by 10 per cent, particulate matter by 40 per cent and nitrogen oxides by 60 per cent.

The company now plans to roll out the MultiAir across several engine families.

Meanwhile, the Green Engine of the Year Award went to Toyota for the 1.8l Atkinson-cycle unit that is a feature of the new Prius and the Auris. The remaining award winners were:

- Best Performance Engine – Mercedes-AMG 6.2litre.

- Sub one litre – Toyota three-cylinder one litre.

- One litre-1.4 litre – Volkswagen 1.4litre TSI Twincharger.

- 1.4litre-1.8litre – BMW-PSA 1.6litre Turbo.

- 1.8litre-two litre – BMW two litre twin-turbo diesel.

- Two litre-2.5litre – Audi 2.5litre five-cylinder Turbo.

- 2.5litre-3.0litre – BMW three litre DI Twin-Turbo.

- Two litre-Four litre – BMW 4litre V8.

- Above four litre – Mercedes AMG 6.2litre.

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A new test carried out by the German Automobilclub (ADAC) has named the Fiat Panda Natural Power vehicle as the most economical vehicle of all.

The car placed first in a test of 241 vehicles in various categories with different fuel systems. The test examined how far each vehicle – from small two-seaters to sporting super cars – could travel on just €30 of fuel with the Fiat model covering 450miles.

So what do we know about the Fiat Panda Natural Power?

The vehicle is a dual-fuel model capable of running on methane and petrol. Two separate methane thanks are incorporated in the floorpan using an under-chassis installation method that results in a total capacity of 72litres. The petrol tank capacity of 30litres meanwhile, offers a back-up in areas where methane fuelling stations are few and far between.

Capable of speeds up to 87mph, the 1.2 8V Bipower can achieve CO2 emission levels as low as 113g/km when natural gas is used.

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While new car’s are slashing emissions across the board, Fiat is leading the way, the latest industry analysis reveals.

According to data from automotive research experts, JATO Dynamics, the Fiat brand and Fiat Group posted Europe’s lowest volume weighted CO₂ emissions in 2009.

The carmaker logged a CO₂ average of just 127.8 g/km, compared with 133.7 g/km in 2008’s results. This puts it ahead of Toyota (at an average of 130.1 g/km), Peugeot (with 133.6 g/km), Renault (137.5 g/km), Citroen (137.9 g/km), Ford (140.0 g/km), Opel/Vauxhall (148.9 g/km), Volkswagen (150.4 g/km), Audi (160.9 g/km) and Mercedes (176.4 g/km).

The Italian brand also ranked first among the motor groups (131.0 g/km), ahead of Toyota, PSA, Renault and Hyundai.

It means that the carmaker has already beaten the European average target of 130 g/km, five years ahead of its 2015 implementation.

The Italian carmaker’s strategy to reduce emissions-responsible for the fall in average emissions- is based on a two-pronged approach: implementing technological solutions aimed at containing consumption and emissions, and raising the awareness of motorists to spur a more responsible, eco-compatible use of their cars.

Unique engines, such as the new 900cc, 95 g/km Twin-Air two-cylinder and second-generation 1.3 MultiJet engines delivering power of up to 95hp, are part of that strategy. Raising awareness is the second part of the policy – implemented by the firm’s eco:Drive the in-car software which analyses driver behaviour and suggests ways to improve it.

“These are important figures as they show not just the environmental impact of one or two of our cars, but the whole range,” says Andrew Humberstone, managing director, Fiat Group Automobiles UK and Ireland. "That means that every vehicle we sell is making its own contribution to emissions cutting and is playing its part in making Europe a cleaner place in which to live.”

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Fiat’s eco:drive system has proven a big hit, and now the data collection and transmission system will be made available to fleet drivers.

Fiat is introducing eco:drive fleet to help companies gather vehicle efficiency data and analyse car performance. It suggests that it can help save as much as 15 per cent on fuel consumption and ensure that car components are being used to their optimum efficiency.

The idea behind the eco:drive concept is that it can optimise fuel consumption and the safety of company car fleets. It does this by measuring mileage data and showing the data related to vehicles and drivers either individually or collectively. It then automatically updates a database with management costs and evaluates driver behaviour and its impact on fuel consumption while offering advice to help them become more eco-efficient drivers.

It does this by taking information from the engine control unit through Blue&Me, which is the most widespread on-board telematics platform in Europe and has more than one million units installed. The data recorded can be transferred on to PCs via a USB key and processed by appropriate software to analyse motorists’ behaviour and to help optimise fuel consumption and emissions.

The eco:drive programme can be downloaded for free at fiat.com and more than 100,000 copies have been downloaded to date. It is available for all Fiat vehicles and Fiat Professional commercial vehicles, including the Fiat 500, 500C, Bravo, Croma, Grande Punto, Nuovo Doblo, Punto EVO, Qubo, the Grande Punto Van, Punto EVO Van, Florino and Doblo Cargo.

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Fiat’s massively popular 500 model is to slash its emissions while boosting its power and performance creating a win-win situation for its drivers.

The 500 range will gain a new 1.3-litre 16-valve MultiJet diesel engine. Its out-going 75bhp MultiJet unit is being replaced with a more potent but also more environmentally-friendly 95bhp ‘MultiJet II’ version. The model will also feature Fiat’s acclaimed Start&Stop to really eek out the miles to the gallon.

The new unit introduces an innovative variable geometry turbocharger that enables it to deliver 95bhp at 4000rpm and 200Nm of torque at only 1500rpm. This output significantly improves the car’s performance, taking its top speed to 112mph (from 103mph) and reducing the 0-62mph acceleration time from 12.5 to just 10.7 seconds.

Fuel consumption is improved from 67.3mpg to 72.4mpg in the combined cycle, while emissions drop to 104g/km of CO2 (from 110g/km). Together with Start&Stop, the engine also includes a DPF particulate filter for improved emissions efficiency and effectiveness from a cold start.

“This remarkable new diesel engine will add even greater excitement to the fantastic 500 range, but without adding to the cost of ownership,” says Andrew Humberstone, managing director, Fiat Group Automobiles UK Ltd. “In fact, with greater fuel economy and lower emissions, everyone will benefit from this new variant.”

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