Chrysler-Fiat Merger Could Bring Natural Gas Vehicles

What does Fiat’s rescue of Chrysler mean to American car buyers? Fiat models could be found in Chrysler and Dodge dealer showrooms and even come off Chrysler assembly lines. Chrysler vice chairman and president Tom LaSorda says this could happen as soon as 18 months, though some industry experts say it could be up to three years.

The most likely model to first emerge is the hot selling Fiat 500. Besides giving BMW’s equally popular MINI some serious competition – that is, if it’s the performance-oriented Abarth version of the 500 – the Fiat 500 could give Chrysler a first class, fuel-sipping microcar that’s fun to drive. Other Fiat models like the Punto three- or five-door hatchback, Multipla compact SUV, or Doblò minivan could be built and sold here, possibly with Dodge, Chrysler, or Jeep labels. American enthusiasts might even be able to buy one of the Alfa-Romeo models they have seen and drooled over in car magazines for years.

Chrysler will also get access to Fiat’s technologies and its vast experience with alternative fuel vehicles, including dual-fuel and tetrafuel variants. Fiat is a world leader when it comes to developing, building, and marketing natural gas vehicles (NGVs). In 2008, Fiat sold 68,000 NGVs and hopes to sell 120,000 in 2009. Fiat also has first class hybrid and electric vehicle technologies, but so does Chrysler.

Fiat Group Automobiles is the first manufacturer to offer a wide range of dual fuel vehicles in its eco-friendly ‘Natural Power’ line. These include the Panda Natural Power, four-wheel-drive Panda Climbing Natural Power, Punto Natural Power, Multipla Natural Power, and Fiat Doblò Natural Power. All can run on gasoline or compressed natural gas (CNG) – or ‘methane,’ as Fiat calls CNG.

Fiat says that natural gas is currently the most appropriate and readily-available technology for solving pollution problems in urban areas. Furthermore, methane is attractive compared to diesel and gasoline from a cost standpoint. Filling a Panda’s CNG tanks currently costs less than $13 and provides a range of about 170 miles.

Fiat Brazil, working with Magneti Marelli, has developed tetrafuel vehicles, and in Brazil it now markets cars that run on gasoline, alcohol, any ethanol blend, or natural gas. If $4-a-gallon gasoline returns, or if there is a gasoline shortage due to some international crises, Chrysler-Fiat could have the ability to ramp up production of vehicles that could run on the cheapest available fuel – whether gasoline, E85 ethanol, or CNG.

As the largest producer of NGVs, Fiat would be in the position of investing significant resources toward making these vehicles a market success in the U.S., including advertising needed to market NGVs in this country. This is something that Honda, the only OEM now offering natural gas cars in the U.S., has not done. It has also experience in establishing CNG stations. Fiat has collaborated with fuel companies and the Italian government to establish over 1,000 CNG stations in Italy alone.

Perhaps Fiat-Chrysler could even change the image of NGVs in the eyes of Americans who now think of these vehicles as only suitable for fleets, government agencies, and staunch environmentalists. And how about a natural gas fueled Alfa-Romeo 8c Competizione Tesla-competitor for celebrities who want to show their ‘greenness?’