The Twin Air engine developed by Fiat is undoubtedly an impressive achievement. It is small, efficient and gives surprising levels of performance from its 2 cylinders. Combined with the little Fiat 500 Convertible it makes a delightfully characterful car with a distinctive sound and eager acceleration. One thing we did find however is that the claimed fuel consumption figures were a bit optimistic. We haven’t gone as far as running tests but 68 miles per gallon of combined driving sounds a bit too good to be true. It may be achievable under laboratory conditions but with the way the 500C begs you to put your foot down we can’t imagine anyone getting anyway near this figure.
The environmentalists and motoring writers of the Green Apple Awards committee apparently think otherwise however as they have handed the Fiat 500C TwinAir the Green Apple Gold Award for Green Vehicles, Coupes and Cabriolets at their 2011 event. The trophy was presented to Fiat by TV Dragon’s Den winner Chris Hopkins, and Ian Donaldson, chairman of the Midland Group of Motoring Writers, which judged and selected the winners. They liked the way the car was both green in the real world too, and are also fun to drive. We won’t argue with the latter and judging by the 95g/km CO2 figure the emissions levels are class leading too.
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