Fiat 500 Start & Stop - eco-driving from Brighton to London's City Hall
Submitted by Fiat on 6 June, 2009 - 23:17
Not many cars as chic as the 500 are so easy on the environment... It's one of those cars that's almost guaranteed to give you a warm glow every time you see it parked outside your house.- What Car? magazine
While respecting the iconic original's concept in shape, functional simplicity, reliability and economy, Fiat's fundamental goal has not been to design a car that merely looks like a 500 but, rather, one that could be a 500 again. Unlike the original rear-mounted 500cc model, the new 500 has a front-mounted engine ranging from 900cc [planned] to 1400cc. The Start&Stop model is based on the most popular 1.2 litre Lounge version and uses uses technology to reduce fuel and emissions, whether you're an eco-conscious driver or not.
The Start & Stop system - developed with Bosch - works by stopping the engine automatically whenever traffic conditions bring the car to a complete halt. It restarts it when the driver selects a gear to move off again. Fuel consumption is reduced by up to 12 per cent (urban figures) with nearly 10g fewer CO2 emissions per mile.
Extra savings can be made by spending some time with eco:Drive, a tool that helps drivers understand the impact of their driving style on fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. The Fiat range is especially attractive to younger drivers and driving instructors, ensuring environmentally-sound driving habits from the outset. Using a USB stick plugged into the car's dashboard, eco:Drive records detailed information about the vehicle and how it is driven, which can be uploaded on to a computer. It then gives an analysis of the driver's performance, along with suggestions and challenges to improve efficiency even further.
You can compete with fellow Fiat owners to see who's the greenest driver and get a sense of the bigger, collective impact. Tens of thousands downloaded eco:Drive in the first year alone, saving roughly a million kgs of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere. Fiat is now working on a specific B2B version of eco:Drive to make it even easier to monitor the CO2 emissions of a whole fleet and track progress on reduction.
Fiat and the environment
The Fiat 500's Euro 5-ready engines, (petrol and diesel) are two years ahead of the legislative deadline and will be available on the majority of its range by the end of 2009. The major thrust of Fiat's research is towards integrating mechanical and hydraulic drive systems with electronic regulation schemes in order to control the combustion process and exhaust gas treatment.
Notable awards for the Fiat 500:
- Fleet Environmental Award 2009 [Energy Saving Trust]
- Car of the Year 2008
- Auto Europa 2008
- EuroCarBody 2007
- Auto Trophy 2007
- BBC Top Gear Awards 07 - best city car
- L’Automobile piu bella del Mondo - best ‘City Car and Compact’ 2007 [leading artists, designers and editors]
