Fiat Ecobasic

The Fiat Ecobasic is a concept car designed by Fiat and presented at the Bologna Motor Show in December 1999, then exhibited at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2000. Its purpose was to show that a car carrying four adults could be built from fully recyclable composite materials with very low production and running costs. The structure was homologated to Euro NCAP standards, the materials covering it are all recyclable, and wind tunnel work gave it a drag coefficient of only 0.28. A transparent hatch in the front grille gave direct access to the coolant and oil reservoirs and to the battery terminals. Fiat built ten examples of the Ecobasic and then decided not to put it into production, so it remains a design study that explored low-cost, recyclable motoring rather than a model that reached showrooms.