PARIS - In contrast to its peers, Italy's Fiat is keeping quiet about its plans for a hybrid or electric car -- so quiet that it does not even say why it is keeping mum about it.
Although Renault and others are rushing to be the first to make electric cars on a mass scale in the coming years, Fiat is happy enough to boast about having the fleet with the lowest average CO2 emissions in Europe at 137.3 g/km last year.
It also takes pride in its cars that run on biofuel. This year it should sell 80,000 cars fueled by methane in Europe, most of them in Italy, said Lorenzo Sistino, the head of the brand.
At the Paris autoshow on Thursday, Sistino came out with another initiative to meet the growing demand for environmentally friendly cars: a label called PUR-O2 that will be assigned to a new version of his line-up of cars fitted with a number of features to emit even less CO2.
The label is similar to those of other car makers like Blue Motion at Volkswagen.
As for anything electric, Sistino says very little.
"We are working on both electric and hybrid," he told Reuters. "We are working on all fronts but we have yet to make an announcement on the strategy."
GREEN NOISE
Elsewhere at the autoshow, car makers were making as much noise as possible about their latest hybrid or electric cars in an effort to prove they were working hard to meet the growing demand for greener cars.
One is Renault, which is planning to come out with an electric car called the Fluence and based on the platform of its best-selling Megane.
Japan's Mitsubishi Motors is getting ready to test its i-MiEv hatchback electric car in Europe next month.
And GM's Chevrolet aims to put the Volt on the road by 2010.
Even Pininfarina, an Italian car designer and contract manufacturer who has worked on Ferraris for Fiat, unveiled a concept of an electric car that it is developing with French financier Bollore.
Such was Sistino's reluctance to say anything about Fiat's plans that he even refused to say when it would come out with its answer to the greening of the industry.
"We'll call you when we're ready," he said jokingly.
PUSH DOWNWARDS
Fiat also was relying on its fleet of small cars to get it through the crisis sweeping the financial markets.
Sistino said the brand's specialty in small cars could help soften its blow because drivers would likely look to save money by buying cheaper and more fuel efficient cars.
"What is sure is that this market crisis will certainly push (buyers) toward the low end of the market (and) this will help us," he said.
Sistino did not want to forecast the effect the crisis would have on sales, calling the market unpredictable.
"What is important is to have great flexibility and know-how to react very, very, very quickly to changes in the market," he said. For him, flexibility meant keeping low inventories.
Although he admitted the credit crunch would take its toll, he did not go into details.
Despite the resulting credit crunch, Fiat would keep financing sales, he said.
It recently came out with a promotion in Italy offering zero interest rate loans for six years.
About 65 percent of car sales are financed by either Fiat or a creditor, he said.
