Missed opportunity?
The South American car market is of immense importance to Fiat. Fiat is a huge player in Brazil in particular, but Abarth has never introduced it there. Until now!
In this article we peek over the border again on the hunt for forbidden fruits. We arrive in Brazil where Fiat is adding a new Abarth model to its range. The Brazilian Fiat range is interesting by nature, because it mainly consists of cars that are not supplied in Europe, such as the Mobi, Argo, Cronos, Strada and Toro. Last year, that list of unknown models was expanded with the Pulse, a compact crossover which now also has an Abarth version.
Fiat Pulse Abarth
Fiat already showed the Pulse Abarth in March this year, but until now it was unknown how big the muscles of that new Abarth model are. The Pulse Abarth gets a 185 hp and 270 Nm blown 1.3, a machine that is therefore considerably stronger than the 130 hp strong 1.3, which is currently the most powerful engine. With its 185 hp, the Pulse Abarth sprints to a speed of 100 km/h in ‘less than 8 seconds’. Its top speed is ‘above 210 km/h’.
Fiat still calls the car Pulse Abarth, which means that it will not officially be sold under the Abarth brand name. That is striking, but explainable. Although Fiat the Pulse Abarth is covered with Abarth logos and you do not see a regular Fiat logo on it, the name Abarth in Brazil does not enjoy the fame it has in Europe.
The 4.1 meter long Pulse is not coming to Europe and so this Abarth variant also passes us by. Is that a loss? We are curious about your opinions.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl