The Bugster is, according to Fiat, the latest in a long line of environmentally advanced cars to emerge from the Italian car maker, which points to another car it has produced for the Latin American market, the Fiat Siena Tetrafuel. It can run on four different types of fuel - petrol, pure ethanol, a petrol/ethanol blend or compressed natural gas - and automatically switches to whichever energy source is most suitable for the driving situation.

Fiat has described it as “an off-road car designed to make saving the planet outrageous fun”.  The Bugster, rolled out this week at the little-known Sao Paulo motor show in Brazil, is a plug-in electric car powered by 93 lithium-ion batteries built into the chassis.

 It also places a question mark over any "saving the planet" claims when you take consider the industrially intensive methods needed to make those batteries.

However, the ingenious bods at Fiat Brazil have had a good think about it and have further offset the Bugster's carbon footprint by making body panels from nanotechnologically modified clay, seat foam made from 30% recycled soya bean oil, and a tool kit made from recycled plastic reinforced with natural sisal fibres.

Environmental checks and balances aside, the result is a cheeky two-seat off-roader that looks capable of going just about anywhere, although Fiat isn't saying just how off-road this thing can go.

With the electric motor kicking out only 59 kW and 220 Nm, it's unlikely to be a demonic hill-climber, but with its Dualogic sequential manual gearbox - the same as that used in the Fiat Punto - it should make the inevitable hunt through the cogs for more power a slightly less cumbersome affair.

Steve Colquhoun, The Age, November 1, 2008