Thursday, March 4, 2010

Are hybrid sportscars the future?

There was barely any car manufacturer present in Geneva without at least one hybrid car to show. Lexus/Toyota showed probably 10 or more variants of the ever same topic. Interestingly even the sportscar manufacturers had to jump on the hybrid train. Porsche for example showed the marvellous Porsche 918 Spyder concept car. With its V8 and twin electrical motors it's supposed to lap the Nurburgring Nordschleife in less than 7:30 minutes. That would be impressive. Porsche even brought a second hybrid sportscar, the 997 GT3 Hybrid, only thought as race car. Ferrari also was forced to come up with something green. So they brought this very green 599 derivate, the Ferrari HY KERS. The most amazing thing about this car certainly was the color. But I am sure the technology is impressive too. So the question remains - are hybrid sportscars the future? They offer even more power, better economics and lower greenhouse gas emissions. But they are also heavier which spoils the sportscar sensation. So I doubt whether big engines with additional big electrical motors are the future. But, we will see.

2 comments:

lupoch said...

The 918 with Nürbugring in less than 7,30 AND 3 l/100 km looks deeply impressive. But I suspect this is not happening at the same time...

Bruno von Rotz said...

certainly not. Somebody asked me how many laps you can do with a TESLA on the Nurburgring. He laughed about my 2 laps estimate and said that you can't even do 1 lap, it's over after 7 km or so. Electrical motors take a lot of energy if driven hard, even worse than gasoline engines. So, whatever you do, lapping the Nurburgring fastly with the 918 will not happen below 25 liters per 100 km.