Ferrari Unveils World's Fastest (and Most Expensive) Hybrid 222
Hugh Pickens writes writes "Fred Meier reports that Ferrari has unveiled its fastest car ever, a nearly 1000 hp. gas-electric hybrid dubbed LaFerrari that does 0-62 mph in less than 3 seconds, 0-124 in less than 7 seconds, 0-186 mph in 15 seconds. "We chose to call this model LaFerrari," says Ferrari's President, Luca di Montezemolo, "because it is the maximum expression of what defines our company – excellence. ...Aimed at our collectors, this is a truly extraordinary car which encompasses advanced solutions that, in the future, will find their way onto the rest of the range." LaFerrari is the company's first hybrid and has a system that incorporates technology developed for the Scuderia Ferrari Formula One race car's KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) setup. In LaFerrari, the hybrid (HY-KERS) version uses a 6.26-liter, non-turbo, V-12 gas engine rated at 800 hp coupled with a 163 hp. electric motor for a combined rating of 963 hp. A second, separate electric motor drives the power accessories."
Re:Gas mileage (Score:5, Interesting)
16MPG? That sounds fairly excellent for such a beastly machine that can actually generate downforce (which can never happen for free).
Even cooling this thing must be a drag (literally), and the big tires themselves eat huge amounts of energy just in overcoming rolling resistance. Everything about the car (including the hybrid aspect, which seems more about performance than economy) seems to indicate that it should be very, very thirsty.
For a totally unfair comparison: My old straight-6 BMW averages about 20MPG with somewhat-spirited mixed driving, and gets about 26 on the highway (it used to be a bit better on the highway, but the diff gearing is currently "wrong" due to other changes). It's got a reasonable drag coefficient, doesn't generate meaningful downforce, cooling it is fairly easy since there is nowhere near as much waste heat, the tires are not so big nor nearly so sticky, and it has far less than half as many functional moving parts (and around 1/5th the power of the Ferrari).
At 16MPG, if that is indeed the number, it sounds like they've done a wonderful job with efficiency: It is certainly not a concept that was cast to the wind when they designed it.
Re:Not a gas-hybrid (Score:5, Interesting)
Uhhh...you expect grammar nazis to care about logic? Really? You must be new here.
As for TFA frankly ALL hybrids might as well be toys for the rich because if you remove all the government subsidies? The math just doesn't work. The problem is we haven't had a real breakthrough in battery tech in years and the lithium batteries just don't make economic sense. From the tests I've seen depending on where you live and whether you own a climate controlled garage (because of differences in temps affecting battery life) you are looking at 5-7 years on the battery. Now from what I read the batteries in something like the Leaf or Prius cost around $20,000 to replace yet thanks to government subsidies these cars only cost $24k-$39k depending on feature set so already you have a car that is gonna be practically worthless on the used car market (because the battery costs more than the used car is worth)
Unfortunately, you seem to be reading "studies" put out by FUD-spewing shills. Most of the "facts" in your analysis are simply incorrect.
(A) "the lithium batteries just don't make economic sense": the Prius and Honda hybrids use NiMH batteries, not Lithium tech (which is coming into use in newer vehicles, e.g. Tesla and Chevy Volt); focusing on Lithium while bashing the Prius shows your ignorance of the subject.
(B) "you are looking at 5-7 years on the battery," "practically worthless on the used car market": the Prius was introduced in Japan in 1997, and on the world market in 2000. They aren't dropping dead on the road --- real life longevity/reliability is quite high, with a decade and a half of data to back it up. Feel free to check actual used car prices to see whether a Prius is "practically worthless."
(C) "...batteries in something like the Leaf or Prius cost around $20,000 to replace yet thanks to government subsidies these cars only cost $24k-$39k": many ridiculous (and intentionally deceptive) estimates of "OMG huge gov subsidies" are floating around with no basis in fact. They are usually based on highly faulty economics, e.g. dividing (Gov. subsidy for building big new factory)/(# of batteries produced per year) to produce "scary" numbers, while ignoring that the factory will continue producing batteries for decades. Actual Prius battery replacement from Toyota is ~$4k, and might need to be done (if ever) after ~300,000 miles.
Re:Not a gas-hybrid (Score:2, Interesting)
I would say you're probably right about you can get from a horse for a few minutes or maybe a little longer but a "horsepower" is probably accurate for the work you can expect from a horse over the course of it's shift. Remember Horse where literately the engines of industry. You can gallop a horse for a while but he'll take you further if you let it trot. So I think Watts guessed pretty well for what he was going for which how many horses one of his engines could replace.