.... or 'Do enthusiast's dream of electric cars?'
I'm really not sure hybrids are the answer, but in the short term at least it looks like they will be a reality, with Peugeot, Chevrolet, Nissan joining Toyota & Honda in offering mass market models of such. At the upper end of the scale we have Mercedes, Porsche and Lotus announcing 500bhp+ hybrids. At first I thought this was the engineers proving they had a sense of humour, now I just think they're being gits - producing something that is in fact more excessive that what it replaces but that's OK, because it's a hybrid.
I used to disagree with hybrids on principle: better to optimise existing drivetrain than lug around another for part time use, etc. However technological improvements – batteries especially – makes them a far more practical proposition. Out in the country, an efficient diesel is still best, something not likely to change anytime soon; but in an urban context, with a busy school run / commute (i.e., most of us) they make increasing sense. Unfortunately they still don't set the petrolhead's heart a-flutter, so I've been thinking about a manifesto for a hybrid that satisfies eurocrats and petrolhead alike.
Firstly – and this is non negotiable – it must be a parallel hybrid, preferably with electric drive at the front axle and internal combustion at the back. Electric only range shouldn't be more (or for that matter, less) than 30 miles; doesn't sound like much, but that's precisely the point - it is in fact enough to complete 80% of all journeys and obviously keeping the EV range down reduces the batteries needed and therefore weight.
There would of course be a full electric mode, topping out at 30mph for use on the daily grind and urban use generally; i.e. when driving is a chore. However, like the yellow pages, the electric motors are not just there for the nasty things in life; in other modes the drivetrain should be optimised for performance / enjoyment. With maximum torque on tap from the first revolution, electric motors are ideal for not only boosting acceleration performance but, by potentially reducing load on IC engine, improving efficiency at the same time: win-win. Could be a mean B-road point and squirt machine...
In fact this could mean a more 'relevant' performance envelope overall; my pet theory is that although 200mph was a milestone, the plethora of cars with a frankly irrelevant (yes, even on the autobahns) top speed is a by-product of delivering impressive acceleration. In the real world, the latter is more important / relevant / fun than the former. Although the official figures for the Nissan Leaf aren't that impressive, an independently tested pre-production example recorded a 0-60 of 7 secs and top speed of 95mph, which is nearly there: 5-6 secs and ~120mph would be ideal.
(This sort of touches on another point: is it heresy for someone who professes to be an enthusiast to confess that he thinks too much modern performance machinery is too fast? It's getting so that they're not just more fun at extra-legal speeds, they're only fun at extra-legal speeds.)
Which brings us to the final issue: control. There should be a 'manual' mode – which of course would be an illusion whereby the drivetrain simulates that behaviour (like the 'gears' on CVT equipped MGFs): acceleration and braking would be sharpened, engine (or more likely regenerative simulating it) braking boosted, etc. Taken to it's ultimate conclusion, with a drive by wire infrastructure in place, one might be able to mimic specific vehicles and such settings could be downloaded like ringtones.
How likely is this to happen? No idea, but the point is that change is inevitable, especially whilst the car remains legislators favourite whipping boy, so resistance is not a valid response; so why not try to take advantage of the potential benefits and shape the outcome more favourably?
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