Honda Rolls Out New Hybrid, Looks To Challenge Toyota

New York Times:

Honda issued its challenge to the Toyota Prius on Thursday, introducing the Insight hybrid at the Paris Motor Show.

"Honda is committed to taking a leadership role in hybrid technology," said Sage Marie, an American Honda spokesman here.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[jsarets]

Honda's Integrated Motor Assist is a lame parallel hybrid design. There's one motor-generator (MG) on the crankshaft between the engine and a mechanical CVT. The MG can recover energy during breaking and use it to assist acceleration, allowing for a somewhat smaller engine. It can also rapidly restart the engine. But it cannot operate without turning over the engine, and it cannot recover energy from the engine when power demand is below the optimal efficiency band. It will do alright in the city, but it won't do anything for cruising on the highway.

In contrast, Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive (HSD) can operate as a full parallel hybrid, a full serial hybrid, or anywhere in between depending on speed, load, and state of charge. There are two MGs and the engine connected through a single fixed-ratio planetary gear. The engine speed is almost completely independent of the car speed. MG1 adds or subtracts from the engine speed, while MG2 adds or subtracts from the torque at the wheels. Together, they form an electronic CVT, providing nine distinct modes of operation -- stopped, stealth, accelerating, cruising, coasting, compressing, breaking, and reverse with or without engine -- without any mechanical actuators.

For the ~$3K difference, I see no reason not to spring for the Prius over the Insight. Honda is just being stubborn by not licensing Toyota's patents as GM and Ford have already done. Face it, HSD is the superior solution for non-plugin hybrids.

[saxmaniac]

And the Chevrolet VOLT will not even bein in showrooms until 2010 or 2011. Car guys, along with everyone in Congress, should be immediately unemployed.

[jsarets]

GM will have the plugin two-mode hybrid Saturn VUE for 2009. The Volt and other E-Flex vehicles are full performance on battery power and zero fuel consumption until the battery is depleted, so they need some additional trickery such as an electric heat pump to heat the cabin without the engine running. The VUE will run the engine at highway speed or whenever the heater is on regardless of battery state of charge. But they both have lithium-ion batteries, which are higher capacity, lower mass, and more environmentally sound than the NiMH packs used in any of the other hybrids scheduled for 2009.

[darthdarcy]

So it's a hybrid, hybrid..!

[Badbone]

No car company is serious about high MPG cars for America. If they were, they'd sell the kind of cars they sell in Europe and Japan. 60 MPG? Happens every single day. Just not in America.

[KillTheMessenger]

60mpg cars in Europe look like chairs on wheels. The only technical solution to achieve those kinds of efficiencies in non-hybrids is to make them really small. Which means there is basically no cargo space in those things. They work for European singles and couples without kids who both work and live in city environments with shopping in walking distance. But in the US with its mega-mall culture and no local retail they would be virtually useless.

The problems of the US go way deeper than cars. They are structural and no short term solutions are available. Even long term solutions will be painful, at best. That's what you get for neglecting your urban infrastructure since the 1970s.

[MajorKong]

True, but I think there are reasonably practical cars in Europe that get 40-50 mpg.

A Jetta TDI for example is EPA rated at 30 city/41 highway. It's at least a step in the right direction. Certainly an improvement over the 15mpg Canyoneros that most suburbanites are driving now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8hDUaik7A4

[Tom95134]

Looks like a Prius with a Chrysler 300 grill. (At least they didn't copy the Edsel grill.)

[KillTheMessenger]

Physics is unforgiving. If you want the optimal solution, they will all look roughly the same. Just like an Airbus jet does not look much different from a Boeing plane.