Is GM/BMW/Daimler's dual-mode hybrid too much?
With Toyota dominating the hybrid market, some other automakers are trying to play catch-up (not Ford, of course). But there are different types of hybrid engines, and the dual-mode hybrid system in development by GM and DaimlerChrysler and BMW has won praise from some analysts, but HybridCars.com got dissenting views from two others. UC Davis Professor Andy Frank and Ron Gremban, CalCars Technology Lead both give their opinions on the dual-mode hybrid. In short, they think the system is too costly and incapable of driving solely on electric power (and Gremban scoffs at the consortium for saying this is an advantage).
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[Source: Hybrid Cars]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Lithous 10:36AM (8/24/2006)
You greenies are the most political bunch on the planet. It is ugly reading some of this stuff.
First of all people with no understanding saw Ford as the clear victor over GM because Ford had a hybrid out before GM. The problem is that Ford didn't develop jack for it. GM took longer to have something because they were developing it themselves. Now GM will be able to produce mass number of hybrid vehicles and Ford won't. Ford just expected their supplier to make whatever and Ford has no control otherwise. Sure GM will use suppliers too but GM (along with their co-developers) own the technology and can get any supplier to make the parts or in-house (IIRC the VUE GL will have many parts from a GM Baltimore plant). BTW, Americans may be behind in hybrid technology but I believe the VUE is the first hybrid to be built in America and with American parts. So believe me, GM's route was the correct long term route and not the Ford way of producing a hybrid.
In autobloggreen's summary there is no mention of the two dissenters as being competitors ("That's what we have been developing for the last 15 years. Our one-motor CVT hybrid transmission...").
"In short, they think the system is too costly and incapable of driving solely on electric power"
That is FALSE. That is not the statement. The statement was...
"Of course, downsizing the motor/generators makes the system less capable of pure electric driving, and thereby less capable as a potential PHEV"
LESS CAPABLE IS DIFFERENT FROM INCAPABLE.
And the advantage is that it is smaller/lighter not that it is "incapable" of pure electric driving. If parts are smaller/lighter it takes less energy to move and therefore it isn't as big a deal to have less generator size on board.
Do you guys hate GM that much to spew this kind of crap? Really, how does "less capable" become "incapable"? This isn't word of mouth, the print is right there, no excuse for it.
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MikeW 11:50PM (8/24/2006)
The VUE is not a hybrid. It is an auto start/stop system with integrated starter/generator.
If you downsize the electric motor, the pure electric operational range is severely diminished.
In edmunds civic hybrid versus prius, they said that the civic only ran up to about 5mph before the gasoline engine returned to operation, and the prius went to around 25mph before the gasoline engine transitioned in.
Some people who offroad with their Jeep Wranglers use the starter motor to move the vehicle forward while in low range, does that make it a hybrid? It does allow for maybe 1 mph forward, enough to save one's bacon, if need be.
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