Italdesign Lucciola

The Italdesign Lucciola, Italian for firefly, is a compact hybrid car concept from 1993 that Italdesign created to combine the ideas of leisure and eco-friendliness. It is an electrically driven hybrid with an aluminium body made partly of recyclable materials, and it can be converted from a closed car to an open-topped one, which suits leisure use. Italdesign said its clean power unit and small size would let it enter town centres closed to traffic because of air pollution. A 5.5 kW twin-cylinder catalysed diesel engine and two 7 kW electric motors on the rear wheels give a speed of 100 km/h, a range of 8 continuous hours in hybrid mode or 50 km on electric drive alone. It premiered at the Bologna Motor Show as a development of the ID Cinquecento, a static model shown at the 1992 Turin Motor Show. Italdesign says it was to give rise to the Daewoo Matiz; the Russian outlet motor.ru adds that Giugiaro was designing a new Fiat Cinquecento, that Fiat's management passed on the Lucciola, and that Daewoo then took up the design.