Monday, August 31, 2009

BMW's Diesel Hybrid prototype - the future of sportscars?

BMW just reveiled a prototype that will be showcased at the coming international auto exhibition (IAA) in Frankfurt. It combines a 3 cylinder diesel engine with two electrical motors and a battery of 85 kg. The car is supposed to be very efficient with less than 4 liters per 100 km and at the same time quick too with less than 5 seconds for the sprint from 0 to 100 km/h. Sounds good, doesn't it? In addition is is supposed to have a very low drag coefficient with 0.22 and it isn't as heavy as you could expect looking at all the technology on board, the weight is actually less than 1'400 kg. So this all looks like BMW has invented the sportscar of the future. Well, I don't think so. This thing will sound awful with its 3 pot diesel engine and the look is more suited for a non-production prototype than for something you can really use. It's an interesting engineering object though, but I will still prefer the really light weight and no thrills alternative that hopefully somebody else (Lotus, where is the successor of the Elise?) will build.

1 comment:

John L said...

It might make a very good tractor.