23.10.2003 PANDA HYDROGEN: THE LATEST RESULT OF FIAT AUTO'S COMMITMENT TO ALTERNATIVE TRACTION
As far as Fiat Auto is concerned, environmental protection is a fundamental research strand in the development of all future models. Our introduction of the Panda Hydrogen is simply the latest in a string of developments that have seen Fiat taking centre stage internationally.
In particular, Fuel Cell technology for automotive applications is receiving great attention from major automotive manufacturers who are exploring the true potentials of this field and its benefits to the environment through research programmes and the development of demonstration prototypes. This is the exciting background to Fiat Auto's new Panda Hydrogen. Fiat Auto intends to use this revolutionary model, which accounts for just part of its extensive research programme, to explore a new technological solution, assess car behaviour under actual conditions and determine the environmental benefits.
Although it is unlikely that Fuel Cell propulsion systems will be widely available before the end of the next decade, Fiat Auto has already been actively examining the field for several years. Hence the 2001 debut of the 'Elettra H2 Fuel Cell, and more recently the Seicento Hydrogen. Both prototypes were produced at the Fiat Research Centre with the cooperation with the Italian Ministry for the Environment. The Panda Hydrogen has now taken up the baton to take research from the laboratory prototype stage to that of a field research vehicle.
The choice of Fiat's new supermini as the first experimental vehicle for small fleets is easy to explain: as Fuel Cell technology aims to reduce significantly the environmental effect of the car, a city car such as the Panda is the best suited for providing effective answers to the environmental problems of our cities.
The Panda Hydrogen is the best example of Fiat's broad-based commitment to this specific field of research. Yet its efforts in this field do not preventing it from pursuing research and development into other technologies that could be applicable in the short and medium term. Over recent years, the progress we have achieved in conventional petrol and diesel engine technologies has been paralleled by alternative products where Fiat Auto has excelled in all areas: from electric traction to hybrid traction and natural gas fuel systems. Fiat Auto has complemented these sophisticated products, a field where it is a world leader, with campaigns of great social and environmental impact, such as the Methane Project, that aim to reduce emissions and fuel consumption.
These products mean that Fiat Auto is the only manufacturer in the world that can boast a full array of vehicles with alternative traction or fuel systems to demonstrate its commitment to the development of products for sustainable mobility. This consistent, long-term undertaking receives a further boost today with the presentation of the Panda Hydrogen. The project forms what is part of a wider cooperative venture set up some years ago with the Ministry for the Environment.
The need for cooperation between public and private sector is becoming increasingly evident when it comes to tackling environmental problems linked to urban mobility. In this field, there is no such thing as one solution but a mosaic of solutions that must be integrated within the fabric of the city. This is why the public sector must lay down the guidelines and the automotive industry must respond by developing, producing and marketing cars that are ever more eco-compatible in line with the mobility plans and choices of our cities.
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