Looks great from the side and poo from the front and back.
FACT.
CES 2012 Week Don't let the Acura badges fool you, what you are looking at here is the new Honda NSX, the long overdue replacement for what many people regard as the finest handling road car ever made. Honda next-gen NSX Under the striking bodywork sits a mid-mounted V-6 VTEC engine and what Honda is calling a Sport …
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Hopefully they will hook up a 6kva diesel generator in and hook it up to a 200 amp fast charger, inverter and a nice big lion baterry bank. The 'electric' car revolution wont be won by burning anything other than diesel intially - a 6kva generator is used around about 1.5 litres of diesel an hour (charging at 200 amps, can be fine tuned to much less at less amps) using some clever software and fine tuning it would be possible to use the batterys/capacitors to provide instant peak load and start/stop the generator to provide both performance and efficiency.
Separate motors directly attached to individual wheels is absolutely the way to go for max power, control and efficiency. It makes the control electronics a minor nightmare but the simplicity (or lack) of the drive train is a huge bonus and the torque levels you can achieve at the wheels is mind-boggling. Can't understand why more manufacturers don't do it (probably because they're converting petrol/diesel shells to electric/hybrid rather than designing from scratch). The only question is why they've stopped at 3 motors and have to share power to rear wheels from single unit - can't be a question of cost surely?!.
...LSD-led grip/powersliding - and a simpler drivetrain if you have a conventional engine in the mix too.
You could try to get two electric motors at the wheels to work in tandem with an LSD, but I think that way only leads to lots of diff replacements as the surface changes and it eats itself up.
Wanging a big leccy motor to the gearbox output shaft (or the flywheel, or whatever) lets them keep the electric boooooost (or eco mode) without having to redesign the tried and tested limited slip diff - IE getting jiggy with some fancy electromechanical one, etc, suspect.
So not a money issue per se, more one of not reinventing the wheel. Hondas first new supercar in years, they probably don't want it to be remembered as the car that ate it's diff every thousands miles, if they get the development wrong.
Steven R
Full electric drive is an issue when it comes to range - Teslas (the only real comparitor here) have a poor range when driven hard, and apparently the torque isn't good for gearboxes.
Hybrids at least can be filled up on the road; you can't (realistically) top up your Tesla with a new battery pack at any service station, in any country in the world. A dozen laps of the Nurburging or a a hard driven trackday, and you're driving your Tesla home on a trailer.
NSX concept? Wang some 98 RON in there and you're on your way.
Honda had enough problems shifting NSXs originally - (no-one believed Honda could make a supercar that could outhandle a Ferrari and be driven by your granny to the shops) so I doubt they'd want to limit their market even further the second time around.
Practicality is the problem. The Tesla - and all electric cars at the moment - are close to being toys, not through their marketing or intent, but just due to the nature of the power sources.
I agree, however, that full electric drive is The Way Forward; just not yet. But then, look at the Jaguar CX concept (IIRC - you know the one I mean); twin gas turbines powering the generators for four 250hp electric motors, on per wheel, direct drive of 1000hp. And 50+mpg.
Now *that's* progress.
I would assume from re-reading the article that the V6 drives the rear wheels and the electric motors drive the front and assist the rears. Makes me question why not go to all electric drive (with the V6 driving an alternator) with 4 motors, eliminating the diff and allowing more computer assist in handling. I'd guess that the alternator would have to be too large and heavy to provide the requisite power.
Lovely car, except for those awful wheels. Put them back on the chrome Hummer, please.