Posts Tagged ‘Hybrid Vehicles’

Will lithium help sell mild hybrids?

Just a glorified start/stop system?

While Honda was the early bird in the hybrid game, Honda’s hybrids have never been able to compete with Toyota Prius sales, and Honda’s less electric hybrid powertrain is one big reason for this difference.

Likewise, GM’s mild hybrid powertrain was even significantly less successful than Honda’s.

Of course, today, Honda is still selling mild hybrids, while GM is not. Eventually, however, GM will upgrade its mild hybrid powertrain with a new lithium battery pack and a few other tweaks.

Still, will mild hybrids ever be as successful as the Prius? Is there even a business case for mild hybrids?

According to a new report, just after 2012 selling mild hybrids might become more difficult than ever as direct injection and turbocharging become more common and cheaper in conventional vehicles, and as the costs of full hybrid cars, such as the Prius, decline.

Nonetheless, by 2015 there could be a market for up to 1 million mild hybrids worldwide per year – or 2 percent of global sales, the report notes. On the other hand the same research finds that full hybrids will achieve 3 times that sale’s figure.

Thus, it seems mild hybrid vehicles might develop into an interesting niche, but they will never compete with full hybrid cars. Moreover, the sale’s potential of mild hybrids could soon peak, just as full hybrids are projected to make serious gains in new vehicle market share.

Via Hybridcarblog

Why not take a few years?

Not 230 mpg?

The EPA has still not decided upon a methodology to determine the fuel economy of the Chevy Volt and plug-in hybrid vehicles. So what?

Not that many plug-in hybrids are even going to be sold in the next few years. Moreover, the government is already giving out free charger stations for early adopters to monitor such kinds of data. Why not use that information?

According to MotorTrend, GM is in constant contact and “collaborating” with the EPA to help determine a number that GM customers “can feel comfortable with.”

Is such collaboration really needed? Why not just let the facts speak for themselves?

Inevitably, fuel economy for the Volt and plug-in hybrids is going to vary wildly dependent upon charge, driving conditions, etc. Since automakers and the government are going to have real world data from thousands of vehicles over the next few years, why shouldn’t the EPA take its time and get it right?

Ultimately, the early adopters that are going to buy up the first few years of plug-in hybrid supply – a very limited supply – are going to buy these vehicles regardless of any EPA fuel economy sticker. So, what’s the rush? CAFE credits? Marketing?

For decades EPA fuel economy stickers have provided a very unrealistic picture of real world fuel economy, helping to increase our dependence upon oil, especially foreign oil. With plug-ins, the EPA has more real world data than ever to provide consumers with realistic fuel economy estimates. So, use it.

Via Hybridcarblog

At least in the interim

Can we do better

What if today’s autos could be made 50 percent more fuel efficient without adding any costs? Might that not be the biggest thing to hit the auto industry in many decades? Bigger than NiMH? Bigger than lithium? Bigger than any battery?

A simple new engine offers just such a possibility.

EcoMotors is a 2-year old start-up that has developed a new kind of engine. With an entirely unique configuration of pistons and cylinders, EcoMotor’s Opoc engine isn’t just half the weight and size of conventional engines, it’s also up to 50 percent more fuel efficient than similar engines with the same output notes the DetroitNews.

“Opoc is precisely the kind of game-changing innovation that we at Khosla Ventures are passionate about,” said Vinod Khosla, whom along with Bill Gates just pumped $23.5 million into the venture.

“Game-changing innovation”.

Can there be a game-changing innovation outside of the plug-in vehicle?

Obviously.

While the move to battery-powered vehicles is extremely important, over and over the evidence demonstrates that it could take up to several decades for pure battery-powered vehicles to have any meaningful impact on oil dependence and emissions. But, do we have several decades based on the last few decades of foreign oil dependency?

Besides, such an engine could also make hybrid cars and small-battery plug-in hybrid vehicles – the kind of plug-ins that most analysts and battery researchers claim offer the most compelling case for the greatest number of consumers – significantly more efficient, and almost certainly at a much cheaper cost than just plugging in today’s fleet of autos.

Thus, isn’t it important that not too many eggs are thrown into just one basket? And, if true, isn’t competition – such as for tax credits – the only way to adequately utilize our eggs?

Some day soon we might find that a Ford Fusion hybrid using an Opoc engine and fueled by some form of algae biofuel isn’t just the greenest solution available to end oil dependence, but also simply the cheapest. And that’s just one combination of potential game-changing technologies.

Without doubt batteries will be critical to the future, but they might end up being just a piece of the solution, not the whole puzzle. Consequently, shouldn’t the government’s major focus be creating competition rather than trying to forecast winning technologies?

Via Hybridcarblog

Filed under: Hybrid, Sedan, Technology, Infiniti, Nissan

Up to this point, Nissan has relied on hybrid technology purchased and licensed from the undisputed leader in hybrid vehicles. That would be Toyota, naturally. But the two Japanese automakers will be moving in separate directions in short order as Nissan has developed its own hybrid powertrain technology, and unlike most other automakers, Nissan’s system will debut powering a rear-wheel-drive machine wearing the Infiniti badge.

And there’s apparently another way Nissan and Infiniti’s first in-house hybrid system will differ from Toyota’s full hybrid and Honda’s mild hybrid architecture. According to Reuters, Koichi Hayasaki, Nissan’s chief engineer of its rear-wheel-drive hybrid system maintains that “Typically, carmakers say the fuel economy improvement on their cars using a ‘strong’ or ‘full’ hybrid system is roughly 30 percent, while for ‘mild’ hybrids, it’s 15 percent. We’re aiming for an improvement of 60 to 90 percent.”

Further, Nissan claims its hybrid system will use a single electric motor and twin clutches (instead of two electric motors as used by Toyota), a move that ought to help make the system simpler and lighter than its competitors. It will also use lithium ion batteries instead of cheaper but less energy dense nickel metal hydride cells. If Nissan can manage to hit all of its targets, we may be looking at a new hybrid standard bearer.

[Source: Reuters]

Report: Infiniti to double fuel mileage with next hybrid originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via Autoblog

Coming soon, the $15,000 Honda hybrid?

Honda’s renewed mission to again own fuel economy

For a very long time, Honda has offered the most fuel efficient fleet of vehicles in America. Recently, however, other automakers have moved much closer to matching Honda’s fuel efficiency. In fact, Hyundai even surpassed Honda recently.

Fortunately, however, Honda is not going down without a fight, and things could soon become quite interesting.

Executives throughout Honda are rethinking fuel efficiency, even going so far as to delay the new Civic to make it more fuel efficient according to MotorTrend. Likewise, the automaker is adding a few new hybrid cars to its portfolio, such as the CR-Z hybrid and the Fit hybrid, and all other new vehicles will be driven by fuel economy as the “prime objective”.

However, there are signs that Honda’s new focus isn’t just going to be fuel efficiency, but cost-effective fuel efficiency, such as affordable hybrids for more than just the 3 percent of Americans currently buying hybrid vehicles – the original marketing promise of the Insight.

For example, in New Zealand – where 2-3 percent of residents also buy hybrids – Honda is offering the Insight hybrid at the same price as its conventional competition according to the NZHerald.

Certainly, this move might only make sense in smaller markets like New Zealand, in an attempt to offload a little excess supply. Then again, New Zealand might just be the first test market.

In recent months, many in the press have wondered if Honda had lost some of its mojo, it’s direction. It seems re-embracing fuel efficiency is Honda’s new direction. Nevertheless, Honda needs to do something bold to remind the world of its fuel-efficient roots. Slashing the price of its hybrid cars would certainly be one good way to garner such attention.

With a new Civic and a Fit hybrid upcoming, it should be noteworthy to watch how Honda plays its hybrid hand. For instance, might Honda be the first automaker to offer a $15,000 hybrid? Might not a $15,000 Fit hybrid, for instance, offer the Toyota Prius the most competition it has faced thus far?

Via Hybridcarblog