Update: Fiat to Debut Europe's First Two-Cylinder Engine

Fiat will attend the 2010 Geneva Motor Show next month with one of the most important technologies released in Europe in the last few years: the first two-cylinder engine on the Old Continent. The 900cc, two-cylinder TwinAir configuration will be installed on the Fiat 500 this summer and will produce a maximum output of 85 horsepower.

This will be the first two-cylinder engine in Europe, as Tata Motors, currently offering a similar unit on the Nano minicar, is yet to bring the vehicle on the continent.

Fiat is keeping technical specifications secret but hinted that the 500 model equipped with this powerplant will release less than 100 grams of CO2 per kilometer. The greenest Fiat 500 available at this time, which is also equipped with a stop-start system, produces 113 g/km.

And this isn't the only new thing that Fiat is going to present at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show next month. The Italian company will also introduce some new versions, including a turbocharged 105 horsepower and a normally aspirated 65 hp. The TwinAir engine is likely to make it to other production models beside the 500, including Fiat Panda and Lancia Ypsilon, but this won't happen sooner than 2011.

The engine will be manufactured by Fiat Powertrain Technologies' plant of Bielsko Biala, Poland.

autoevolution will be attending the 2010 Geneva Auto Show, so stay tuned for some real up close and personal shots of the vehicles, as well as for first-hand details of the motorized contraptions presented at the event.