Fiat Strada X-Space goes green
Fiat is launching yet another vehicle – the Fiat Strada X-Space bakkie – that will be bio-fuel powered. The first Fiat bio-fuel vehicle in South Africa is the Uno Flex.
Apart from the Flex logo on the petrol cap and tailgate, the Strada Flex X-Space looks a lot like its siblings. It can run on petrol or ethanol or any combination of the two.
As soon as alternative fuels become commercially available in SA, Fiat will be able to supply Brazilian-sourced Flex vehicles such as the Uno Flex and Strada Flex to the market.
The Strada X-Space is nothing very special compared to other Fiats, except that it is powered by ethanol, which is produced from the fermentation of carbohydrates in crops such as sugar cane, corn, grains or animal waste. The Strada X-Space has a 1.4-litre, eight-valve engine producing a claimed 60kW at 5500rpm and 120Nm at 2250. It also has a five-speed manual gearbox.
Making it slightly more powerful, a flex-fuel engine has a slightly higher compression ratio than a conventional petrol engine and a different camshaft with more lift but less duration for better torque at low revs. Because ethanol has poorer lubricating qualities than petrol, the valves and seats are made of more durable materials. The injectors are bigger because of the higher volume of fuel used when running on ethanol.
A small petrol-only tank under the bonnet is used for the start-up of the engine. Ethanol engines don’t like starting from cold so the petrol-only tank is used for start-up and after a few moments the switch to the second (main) tank will take place automatically. Fuel consumption when running on 100 percent ethanol is about 20 percent higher because of the lower calorific power of alcohol fuels. The performance of the Strada bakkie is improved by about 1kW when running on ethanol fuel.
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