08 September 2009 - 12:00
Lotus goes long
Time to slip on the Top Gear lab coat and get a bit sciencey.
Lotus Engineering will reveal a new ‘range extender' engine at the Frankfurt show. It's a teeny 1.2-litre, three-cylinder with 47bhp and it's designed to slot into a petrol-electric hybrid alongside a bigger engine. The 56kg range extender will then power the electric motor directly or charge the battery packs, so the main, much bigger petrol engine can be rested for longer.
It's being developed with Jaguar and some other important people with the
target of producing a ‘large, prestigious exec saloon with CO2 emissions below
120g/km'.
With various rumours bouncing around about a hybrid XJ, anyone with some basic
logic would assume this is the tech it will carry.
A Lotus-developed Jag with a 1.2-litre and a V8 and electric motor and
batteries? With CO2 below 120g/km?
If only Jeremy's Switzerland-to-Blackpool car had that...
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3 engines per car will never be 'environmentally friendly' no matter what the CO2 emissions data says, simply makind and disposing of it will negate all the apparent savings. Seems to me that its all about getting around the EU mandates for car manufacturers car range emissions stuff, rather than a benfit to the environment or the drivers of the things.
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So it could be employed in an XJ (which frankly could be powered by burning cats and I'd still want one) to bring ownership costs down - yes, yes and CO2 - but could it also be employed in an Exige as a kind of petrol KERS?
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carczar519, not too much, because modern Jags are aluminium, making them the lightest in their respective classes.
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my fiat panda 1.1l engine had 60bhp. i now have a clio 1.2 it has 75bhp and its a 2002 model with 50000 miles. this is a joke only 47bhp, lawnmowers develop more power than that per dispalcement. and then even more of a joke a 3 engined hybird with a v8. that sounds like something from a horror movie of cars. 'its not the 3 eyed monster, its the 3 engined car' another thing if you want to reduce emissions and get better fuel economy dont use a v8 they are big engines that guzzle fuel (not a good thing on a hybird, good on a range rover). finally to all companies talking about hybirds. be quiet, dont talk any more if you can make a hybird make it sell it and if its a sales failure dont make any more, if you cant make a hybird just dont talk about hybirds. and whoever is talking about a diesel hybird make it quick because petrol electrics are a waste of time when regular diseasels can beat their fuel economy
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Hmmm...it could work a bit like having a small turbo complementing a big one to deal with lag. I'd just be interested to see how one would work in-situe as a technical exercise if nowt else........
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I think this idea about "green stuff" is clouding people's minds. People start making unsound decisions when they forget why they do what they are doing. Multiple petrol engines and some electric engines plus a bunch of batteries - it doesn't help the cause to manufacture all that stuff.
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As said, three engines is completely backwards to trying to make cars cleaner. Back to the drawing board....
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You all have the wrong idea. Being fans of TopGear you dont really care about being properly 'Green'. Thats pretty much impossible with the way things all work today. No, what really matters is that you could potentially have a V8 XJ and pay only £35 a year on road tax. And now your tempted...
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Actually some of us are well-rounded car people who look at new tech sometimes. Not all of us are 12-year-old explosion junkies.
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plug-in hybrids are ridiculous. Think about it, you're paying for a petrol engine, you're paying for an electric engine, you're paying for a battery pack and in this case you're paying for another petrol engine! Its gonna get ridiculously heavy and expensive. Rather have a small petrol engined car without any of the hybrid crap and it'll cost you much more cheaper than that hybrid nonsense!
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ohhh my gosh
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i think they shud have put an engine of those on each wheel (the diesel-electric one), even if the car was slow, at least it can move by 188hp
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carczar519 commented on this article
08 September 2009
A Jag with three motors, how much would that car weigh?
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