10 Hydromethane Pandas in the Lombardy Region car fleet
Ten Fiat Pandas powered by hydromethane will become part of the Lombardy Region car fleet from today (22 March 2011).
The cars were presented at Palazzo Lombardia by President Roberto Formigoni, flanked by the Councilor for the Environment, Energy and Networks Marcello Raimondi and by the technical managers of the Fiat and Sapio research centers, with whom the project was carried out.
The Pandas belong to a fleet of 20 cars whose use is aimed at testing the environmental effectiveness, in terms of pollution reduction, of engines powered by the methane-hydrogen mixture. The project involves data monitoring – carried out via GPS – lasting two years, and aims to explore the methane / hydrogen mixture as an intermediate way towards the diffusion of pure hydrogen technology. In fact, the Panda bifuel can be fueled with a mixture that also includes 30% hydrogen, with a proportional reduction in CO2 and NOx emissions.
Furthermore, by exploiting an existing refueling infrastructure, such as the Assago distributor, it will be possible to verify whether it is really possible to overcome traditional problems linked to the adoption of this fuel.