Vision
The quest for CO2 reduction is creating a new automotive market in which Fiat Powertrain will have a pre-eminent role, due to its innovation edge (from Common Rail to MultiAir, the most innovative worldwide engine technologies of the last 20 years came from our R&D centres), and also due to its synergy opportunities . Fiat Powertrain has a background of research in all technologies for automotive propulsion and focuses its strategy on two main steps.
In the short-mid term, the company believes that internal combustion engines will continue to be widely predominant, which means that the greatest CO2 reduction opportunities are still here. In this field, Fiat Powertrain will meet the challenges for environmental sustainability thanks to its breakthrough technologies, such as Multiair for gasoline engines and Multijet II for diesel engines, and to its products developed with the “downsizing” approach, such as the new Twinair gasoline engine. At the same time, Fiat Powertrain believes that natural gas (CNG), which used to be a niche solution, will now be developing to mass production in many markets worldwide. CNG fuelled engines represent the bridge to future alternative fuels technologies such as bio methane, produced by bio masses and mixed with Hydrogen. Methane is a freely available natural fuel, the closest to hydrogen in terms of chemical structure. It is characterised by large reserves, very low extraction energy cost, near-zero heavy hydrocarbon emissions and can be used in conventional internal combustion engines.
In the mid-long term, the Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) propulsion systems is seen by Fiat Powertrain as a solution to reduce energy waste (CO2 emissions) in particular city traffic conditions, even though in most simplified, compact and low-cost configurations, suitable particularly for city cars applications. Furthermore, research and development activities are carried by the company also on Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV), which behave as the HEV’s but allow some vehicle autonomy in electric mode. The energy storage system is however more costly than an HEV’s and they require electric energy re-charging facilities (public or private).