16/03/10

SuperSports Hybrids at the Geneva Motor Show

Icons like Ferrari, Lotus and Porsche exhibit their hybrid systems

Fotogallery The 2010 Geneva Motor Show is showing off a wide range of green technologies.

Automakers, increasingly concerned with cleaner mobility, exhibit their cars and put their advanced technologies in the spotlight, which, instead, were confined to remote stands until a few years ago.

Is it a sign that times are changing or a device to attract people’s attention?? Likely a combination of factors and the concurrence of different needs.

That a strong technological change is under way is indisputable and we have evidence of it just looking at the choices made by great automakers, for example the ones considered the exclusive icons of the racing world, symbols of pure racing; well, all of them have taken up the hybrid technology.

Through their announcements and products, Ferrrari, Lotus and Porche have claimed that they have adopted the hybrid technology as it was inevitable.

The goal of automakers of sports cars is to be in keeping with future ruling concerning the CO2 emission limits , mainly in the urban cycle which, though, mainly hits sports cars whose engines are designed to offer utmost performance and efficiency at high speed, while the emission limits seem to be rewarding for low load cars.

It has always occurred that sport racing has offered opportunities to speed up testing and tuning of new technologies with rapid repercussion on conventional cars.

“Greener” technology does not necessarily mean to tone down a car’s performance, as in the case of the Ferrari HY-KERS, the Lotus 414 Evora, the Porsche GT3R and the 918 Spyder, all of them equipped with hybrid technology.

Here are some reference data of the above mentioned cars so that we can find our way about the green offers at the Geneva Motor Show.

The Lotus Evora 414E Hybrid, the most recent “showcase” of technologies designed by Lotus to reduce the environmental impact, is thus called after its very efficient 414 HP (306 kW) propulsion system. This prototype has got a new electric plug-in propulsion system. The power is stored in a pack of “polymeric” lithium batteries. Further power is supplied by a three-purpose-built cylinder 1,200 cc 48 hp engine (35 kW), going up to 3,500 revolutions per minute and able to increase the range of the vehicle.

It is equipped with two 207 hp (152 kW) electric motors each, that act separately on each driving wheel; they have a 40,7 kgm torque (400 Nm) and they are directly connected to the rear wheels through a one-gear transmission which controls the vehicle acting on the torque. The main advantage of having the two motors located on each driving wheel consists in a better and easier control of the vehicle. Having different torques at the rear wheels not only offers the opportunity to have the full electronic control of the vehicle stability (ESP) by using the energy released while braking, but it also makes the wheels rotate at different speed, triggering a steering drive that adds to the steering of the fore wheels. Its HALOsonic Internal and External Electronic Sound Synthesis System is also worth being mentioned. It is a system developed by Lotus and by Harman International to create sounds that warn pedestrians that a vehicle is drawing near. The HALOsonic system is matched with a new technology system that actually improves the recovery of energy.

Ferrari HY-KERS. It has proved to have the excellent dynamic performance of the V12 599 GTB Fiorano. Its compact three-phase high voltage electric motor, weighing 40 kg, is coupled to the rear of the dual –clutch 7- speed F1 transmission. It transmits the drive through one of the two clutches and is linked to one of the two driving shafts, thus assuring a steady output of power between the electric motor and the engine. The motor releases over 100 hp, which, according to the Ferrari engineers’ goal, offsets any additional kilogramme with the increase of at least 1 hp. In the braking phase the electric motor acts a generator, tapping the kinetic energy to recharge the battery. That becomes possible thanks to an electronic control unit that, in addition to managing the electric motor, feeds power to the ancillary systems such as power steering, servo brake, air-conditioning and onboard systems. It is a concept car that does not give up its sports features but, indeed, it has all the requirements to reduce CO2 emissions by 35%.

The Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid marks a new phase in the history of the Porsche 911 sports version. The innovative hybrid system has been specifically developed for a racing car; its basic features and the components are totally different from any conventional hybrid system. The 911 GT3 R Hybrid has got an electric propulsion system on the front driving axle, equipped with two electric motors each releasing 60 kW, which is coupled with a 6-cylinder 4 lt boxer engine in the rear part of the car.
Instead of the conventional batteries normally used for hybrid road-going cars, this concept has got an electric accumulator similar to a flywheel which, located in the cockpit next to driver’s seat, releases the energy necessary for the electric motors.

The flywheel is also an electric motor whose rotor can go up to a maximum of 40,000 rotations per minute and is able to store energy out of the rotation harnessing kinetic energy under braking. If necessary, while accelerating after a bend or overtaking, the driver can use the energy stored in the flywheel by means of the electromagnetic deceleration of the flywheel which can also release up to 120 kW for the two front electric motors. The additional power is available for the driver after each recharge for a length of time ranging between six to eight seconds.
In this way the energy that, under braking, was once converted into heat and wasted, can now be transformed into additional driving power. However, keeping into account the different racing situations, the hybrid system is not only outstanding for its output of energy but also for the reduction of fuel consumption, thus enhancing the vehicle’s efficiency and, consequently, its performance, thanks to a lighter tank or delaying to stop at the pit.

After their Geneva presentation these vehicles will certainly move from the labs where they were designed to be tested to the racing track with the goal of supplying useful information for future applications of the hybrid technology in road-going sports cars.
More power and less fuel consumption, more efficiency and fewer CO2 emissions. Research and testing from the racing track to the road with the aim of spinning off the”green” technology on everyday cars