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The gadgets that can save us all...
Posted by: automatix on Jul 13, 2010
We all know that things like cellphones can save lives - if you know who to call when the chips are down. But there are other, more expensive and intricate gadgets, that can save us all collectively. Really. Well, maybe.
As a motoring writer, I am often inundated with press releases about unimportant things. Like the quality of our fuel, or the latest trends in car sales. Oh, sure, these things are important to some people, and they should probably be to me too. But I've got bigger fish to fry - if BP's spill in the Gulf doesn't kill them all, that is.
My beef is with the environment. The planet. The place we call home. Because at the rate we're currently going, it ain't gonna last much longer. And I have two small daughters that would probably prefer it if Earth survived a wee bit longer.
Enter the Hybrids. Cars that use a combination of energy sources, often including a mix of turbodiesel and electric power, or petrol and electric or electric and... Well, you get the idea. But understanding what exactly these cars are, and what their benefits are, can be daunting - even for reasonably tech-savvy people. And with the Honda CR-Z on the (very near) horizon, the Hybrid market in South Africa is about to get even bigger. And thankfully also a lot funkier, because let's be honest here: The Toyota Prius isn't exactly exciting to drive.
So in order to help you (and me, for that matter), makes head or tail of the Hybrid thing, I thought it might be grand to share one of the many press releases that recently crossed my desk. This on was from Lexus (as if you wouldn't know that by the end of the very first line anyway). But hopefully it brings some clarity, and makes you realise why your next car should at least be a Hybrid of sorts...
Lexus became the first manufacturer to offer a range of hybrid vehicles in South Africa when it introduced the RX400h and GS450h in 2008. Since then, the luxury brand has enhanced its hybrid offering with the second generation hybrid RX450h and the LS600h L. The company has seen successful take-up by consumers, hybrid customers accounting for just over half of RX sales, for example.
Adopting a new technology in a market dominated by the same principles for over 100 years will be a slow one for South African consumers. But the hybrid race will hot up locally this year when other manufacturers join the market with some form of hybrid or other environmentally conscious technology.
Therein lies the biggest challenge for SA consumers: facing the marketing around these models and understanding exactly what they’re buying into. The decision to adopt hybrid technology is more than likely a rational one, but the real benefits can be highly confusing.
Porsche will introduce a hybrid version of its Cayenne towards the end of the year. There’s much talk about Land Rover’s entry into the hybrid market and Honda’s CRZ is waiting in the wings. BMW has hybrid versions of the X6 in left-hand drive markets. But what are you actually buying?
Soft, mild, and full hybrid technology differ substantially and it’s imperative to understand the fundamental characteristics of all of them to appreciate exactly what benefits you will derive from your conscience. By definition, hybrid in a car sense is the combination of two different sources of power, usually a traditional internal combustion engine and an electric motor. Yet marketers have pounced on the “hybrid” buzz and perception exists that the term refers to any environmentally conscious vehicle.
Simple start/stop technology is the softest “hybrid” technology, but it simply shuts down the petrol or diesel engine at standstill, usually with a fair procedure to boot. Yes, it helps emissions, but it goes little way to making any significant impact on fuel consumption or how much CO2 is expelled on any given journey.
Mild hybrid technology forms the bulk of consumer offerings in global markets. In principle, the combustion engine gets some form of assistance from an electric motor. The new Cayenne S Hybrid, for example, has just 35kW of electric power at its disposal.
To put that into perspective, a full hybrid always operates in electric mode with assistance from the combustion engine. This means that the electric motor has to do meaningful work in driving the car. Both Lexus RX450h and GS450h, by example, have 147kW of electric power and a Toyota Prius enjoys 60kW of electric punch.
Equally, the combination of the two power sources is not a simple matter of adding everything together. The way the two powers ultimately arrive on the road is extremely complex and the “system output” quoted on the spec sheet is never the sum of the petrol plus electric. Using that rationale, Porsche’s 245kW of petrol power and 35kW of electric to give it its 279kW claim would comfortably be trounced by a Lexus GS450h with 365kW. It’s simply not true, hence Lexus’ claimed total system output of 250kW.
Only full hybrids offer the very real and tangible benefits of hybrid technology. Not only is it an environmental technology, but hybrid is a way of offering overall performance advantages as well. This benefits real world driving conditions, as well as contributing to environmental gains.
Nobody can expect motor companies to offer competitive products straight away – only Lexus and Toyota have embraced full hybrid technology and marketed production-ready examples of them for over 10 years already. It would be unfair to expect a first generation hybrid product to offer the same benefits derived from two or three generations of research and development.
Consumers, therefore, shouldn’t expect to gain the ultimate benefits of full hybrid technology in products featuring soft or mild hybrid systems. Unfortunately, the badge on the back remains the same, which leads to easy confusion, and potentially disappointment against expectation. And that would be a disservice to the entire industry – afterall, hybrid technology is the future of the automobile for the next 25 to 30 years in the development towards a zero emissions vehicle world. |
