infinti: the future of hybrids....

[mikeinaustin]

the following is in regard to their infiniti hybrids scheduled for 2010:

Long distance cruising at high speed is not the strong suit of current hybrid systems because their electric motors can’t provide much assist. This leads to highway mileage that is about the same as non-hybrid variants. Infiniti has a plan to change all this however, by enabling their hybrid drivetrain to assist the petrol engine at high speed and for sustained periods. As fitted to the FX crossover, the system will also allow electric-only mode around town and in stop-and-go traffic.

The new battery Nissan and NEC are developing will be half the size of a nickel-hydride battery, while having twice the power, according to NEC, Japan's largest personal computer maker.



i believe their goal is to increase mpg at highway speeds for larger (heavier) vehicles than current hybrid systems are suited for.

 

[ekpolk]

Mike:

Sounds nice, but ultimately, sounds like the old "perpetual motion" promise. The reason hybrids are relatively limited in the highway setting is not because of the characteristics of the motors or the batteries. It's because their true advantage is the ability to store energy that, in urban driving, would normally be converted to heat in the brakes. The hybrid system can, and does, provide some benefit during highway cruising (my Prius weighs about 3000# and I can easily acheive high-40s highway), but "better" electric motors and batteries won't change the fact that there's not much more energy for them to work with when you're cruising "steady state" down an interstate highway. Still, I'd love to see what Nissan comes up with (keeping in mind that the system they're installing in the Altima is nothing more than Toyota's HSD produced under license).