The three year research and development partnership between Fiat Automóveis, Brazilian hydro-electric company Itaipu Binacional and battery manufacturer KWO which started with an electric-powered Palio pilot project is now expanding into the production of a fleet of similarly zero-emission producing Palio Weekend cars.

The three year research and development partnership between Brazilian hydro-electric company Itaipu Binacional, Fiat Automóveis, and Swiss hydro-electric company Kraftewerke Oberhasli (KWO) which started with an all-electric-powered Palio pilot project is now expanding another step with the production of a fleet of similarly zero-emission producing Palio Weekend Elétrico cars.

This ambitious project got underway in 2006 with the aim of production a zero-emission vehicle that also emitted virtually no noise, and developing the ability to manufacture and commercialise such a vehicle in Brazil and thus increase the options in the area of mobility for the Brazilian consumer. Fiat Automóveis has always been at the forefront of technological pioneering and the Brazilian arm of the Fiat Group was the first to introduce an alcohol-powered car as well as more recently becoming the first to commercialise a car that can run on no less than four different fuel sources (the Tetrafuel system). The project with the Itaipu, the state-owned company which operates the huge hydro-electric dam on the Brazil-Paraguay border that provides much of Brazil's electricity, and Swiss fim KWO, got kicked off with the production of a trial fleet of Palio Elétrico models that run on electric motors and have been used in a successful pilot trial by Itaipu. The Palio Elétrico is fitted with an efficient electric motor, a battery pack located in the boot, produces zero-emissions, and the only noise it emits is the contact the tyres make with the road surface.

The next phase of the project is seeing the production of a fleet of Palio Weekend Elétrico vehicles. The base car with all unnecessary components (such as engine, gearbox, water cooling system, fuel tank, etc) is shipped from the Fiat Automóveis factory at Betim in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil, to the giant Itaipu hydro-electric plant (the largest in the world) where it is converted in a dedicated unit on a special production line where it receives its new electric motor, transmission system and batteries. The new powerplant delivers standard power of 15 Kw (20 CV) or maximum useable power of 28 Kw (37.8 CV) while its normal torque is 50 Nm (5.1 kgm) and maximum torque is 124 Nm (12.6 kgm), all of which allows the Palio Weekend Elétrico to whizz itself from standstill to 60 km/h in 9 seconds and reach a maximum speed of 100 km/h.

The compact nature of the new electric motor and transmission, despite the additional weight of the bulky new battery pack, allows a 41.5 kg saving in the estate car's overall weight (1185 kg, along with a useful load carrying ability of 310 kg) compared to the production Palio Weekend. The 253 V/19.3 Kwh nickel battery pack allows the Palio Weekend Elétrico to achieve a range of 120 km and it can be full recharged in 8 hours using any standard (220 V) domestic power point. The batteries are also fully recyclable as sustainability has been another key objective of the project.

Externally the Palio Weekend Elétrico is identical to its mass-production sister (the charging socket is located behind the bodyside flap that usually houses the conventional fuel filler pipe), however inside there are several immediately-noticeable visual changes. In place of the manual gearstick comes a new 3-position stick (drive, neutral or reverse) while a new digital LCD display on the centre of the dashboard informs the driver of the battery's load, tension, life and temperature, and a new instrument cluster behind the steering wheel eliminates the redundant gauges from the fuel version to just record the speed. Also for greater safety and security of the occupants the suspension and brakes (257 mm diameter discs at the front and 228 mm at the rear) have been recalibrated.

Currently twenty one Palio Weekend Elétrico vehicles have been built with the target being to produce fifty by the end of the first quarter of 2010. This experimental fleet will then be used in extensive trials by the partners in the project: Itaipu Binacional, KWO, AMPLA, CPFL, Copel and Eletrobrás, as the reality of commercialising a mass-produced electric car in Brazil edges yet another step closer.