Matt Saunders is the first in the world to test the Mitsubishi i-MiEV Evolution Pikes Peak racer. Whether it wins or not, its legacy is likely to be the next Lancer Evo - a car that's tipped to feature a hybrid powertrain.
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Monopoly of hybrid
That looks nothing like i-MiEV. Mitsubishi seems to be taking hybrid very seriously. Next year the company is bringing to market the world's first plug-in hybrid SUV. Toyota's monopoly of hybrid technology looks increasingly at risk.
If you wanna cut emissions, hybrid is the way forward. Pure electric cars, hydrogen cars, look very saintly on paper but are prohibitively expensive and in real world not so practical.
It's GO!GO!GO!
What great car,shame it will be another 5 yrs before something like it's performance will reach the Road,and.......how long does the charge last?,how far would it go?.
Peter Cavellini.
Hi Peter, done some online
Hi Peter, done some online research. A litre of Diesel has about 10kwh of energy and the engines are at best 40 percent efficient, motors are about 90 percent efficient. This has a 33 kwh battery which crunching the numbers is about equivalent to having 1.6 gallons of Diesel. In a car tuned for efficiency that will be 104 miles at 65mpg. In a car tuned for performance at 25mpg equivalent it is 40 miles. This is the rub with battery vehicles, until we see in excess of 100kwh batteries they are pretty pointless. That is the key stat to look for in reviews.
PhilM400: online research
That's a nice piece of research. I totally agree with you that electric cars would fail to appeal to motorists until they resolve the issue of range anxiety as well as prices which are way higher than comparable ICEs.
BenC30: XC60 PHEV
I am not aware if Volvo's XC60 is in production. Isn't it a concept?
I know that the Volvo will be the first diesel PHEV SUV. But I don't know when it goes into production or goes on sale.
On the other hand Mitsubishi is planned to go on sale in May and it's a petrol hybrid. Correct me, if I am wrong.
I like the electric cut off
I like the electric cut off switch. Maybe they could recharge the i-MiEv back on the way down. Pikes Peak here we come.
www.KOOOLcr.com
Impressive!
I can't believe myself, but I think I'm slowly coming round to the idea of an EV sports car, that's actually desirable. Add a realtime Pagani or Ferrari engine note to the sound system and this could be fun!
fadyady
I believe from press reports that the Volvo XC60 PHEV with the 2.4 litre diesel is now in limited production. The reports say all the first years production, only 1000 units, has already sold and by 2014 production volumes will have been increased. As we all know the press is always correct. It will be interesting to see how it works in the real world and how it sells as its price is quoted as about £48k.
maxecat
Great job
Even though the idea of electric car appears impressive, does anyone really think that it might be a commercial success?The whole point of electric car is to be able to design a technology that seem to find alternate means of fuel for transportation but the fact that the electric cars still have a long way to go before its true potential is completely utilised still remains to be seen.
