The Fiat Palio Weekend Elétrico has just been a key protagonist in an important green initiatives seminar hosted by the authorities of São Paulo that brought this ecologically conscious zero-emission vehicle into the heart of Latin America’s biggest city. Desafios para a Mobilidade Sustentável na Cidade de São Paulo (Challenge for Sustainable Mobility in the City of São Paulo) was an event that aimed to push forward the all-round concept of sustainability.

Itaipu Binacional, Fiat Automóveis, KWO, AMPLA, CPFL, Copel and Eletrobrás are the partners that are seeking to develop electric cars to the point of mass production readiness in Brazil. This latest stage of the project continues the groundwork laid down by the Palio Elétrico prototype and fifty Palio Weekend Elétrico vehicles are being built for an a pilot programme.

So far thirty six Palio Weekend Elétrico vehicles have been built, with the cars converted in a dedicated faciity at the giant hydro-electric Itapiu dam, with the rest of the fifty units scheduled to be completed before the end of the first quarter of next year. One of this batch was donated to the Mayor of São Paulo, Gilberto Kassab, during Desafios para a Mobilidade Sustentável na Cidade de São Paulo. He took delivery of the car from Fiat Brazil’s Director of Institutional Relations, Sérgio Mello, and Director of Quality, Windson Paz.

Kassab took the Palio Weekend Elétrico for a “test drive” within the confines of AES Eletropaulo where the seminar was taking place and was accompanied by the Secretary for Green Initiatives and the Environment, Eduardo Jorge Sobrinho, and for Transport, Alexandre de Moraes, as well as Fiat’s chief of Special Innovations and Vehicles, Leonardo Cavaliere.

During Desafios para a Mobilidade Sustentável na Cidade de São Paulo Cavaliere participated on the panel of Transporte Sustentável” – Novas Perspectivas (Sustainable Transport - New Perspectives) in which he detailed the characteristics and technology of the ambitious Palio Weekend Elétrico project and the challenge to develop the know how to build electric cars that will give Brazil future autonomy in this area and a production applicable leadership.

To build the Palio Weekend Elétrico all unnecessary components (such as engine, gearbox, water cooling system, fuel tank, etc) are removed before the car is shipped from the Fiat Automóveis factory at Betim 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 accelerate 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.