Peugeot preps 4WD diesel hybrid

Looks good - no plug-in though?

Seems to hit all the right buttons, except it can't be recharged from the mains, which is a shame.

I guess it would also be nice if people were planning for fuel cell use, so swappable components would be an idea, though of course a car manufacturers motives are more about selling vehicles than they are about the customers long-term needs.

What else? induction charging and/or plug-in ... air con and toys, range and speed would be useful to know.

oh and price.

ttfn

flatt battery when off-road

Off-road you're likely to be pottering fairly slowly ( i.e. not 100+ MPH) so I would guess that the diesel will have enough spare power to keep the rear motor driven, at least to some extent. It's an interesting design, and while I've always found Peugeots to have horribly uncomfortable seats, they do have some good diesel engineers.

Needs a motor and a generator

Unlike other hybrids where the entire drive line is in the front of the car, so that the generator can be mechanically coupled to the IC engine.

Re: Needs a motor and a generator

Whilst pondering your bizarre claim, it occurred to me that it doesn't even need an electrical coupling to the IC engine since the batts could be charged from the motion of the rear wheels...

more leccy rubbish

68mpg isn't amazing to begin with but I don't really understand...

"or to cut fuel consumption on the open road"

how does lugging around an extra weight of batteries and motor cut fuel consumption on the open road? Surely you don't need four wheel drive on the open road, and if you consider a very long straight, constant speed open road I really can't see the benefit of lugging all this kit around.

Granted if you've just built up some charge breaking here and there, then the road opens up then there might be something in it, but cruise for a hundred miles or more and I'll bet you're just lugging dead weight

@ Micheal Smith

I don't see any reason why the generator can't be in front. All you'd need to do is run a wire to the back. I do wonder why only the back brakes use regenerative power though. You'd think the fronts, which do most of the braking by a good margin, would give better results. Since I can assume their engineers know better than I do, there must be a good reason for it, but I'd be interested to know why if anyone can fill me in.

Nice, but...

Come on Pug, put this technology in the 308 RC and then I'll be impressed.

Off-Road and batteries

If it is anything like the Prius, it will aim to keep the batteries at about 2/3 charged, so it would take a while to drain. If the batteries are running low, the motor will be run at higher revs to add charge - some power to the wheels, some to the electric motor and some to the battery pack. Some of the Lexus range and the Toyota Estima also gain 4WD from the electric motors.

The Peugeot looks quite interesting.

Like this....

Normally a car like this would be, hideous, crap, awful to live with and have very little ecological benefits compared to a small run-around 'tin can' with stupid-skinny tyres.

People are going to love this car when our French neighbours launch it.

I swore I would never drive a French car until I tried my g/f''s 309 estate, what a revelation!

The French have managed to corner the market in this sector and provided jobs, space to develop ideas, nurture training and in turn guarantee a future of their industry.

It's a shame that we have no manufacturing base in the UK that could follow their lead.

We used to have a country full of clever, innovative people in the mechanical engineering sector.

Are you reading this you short-sighted bunch of publicity-seeking, expenses-fiddling, short-sighted, political twunts?

automatic engine start/stop?

Can the generator act as a motor? Or will it swap between RWD and 4WD as it automatically turns the diesel engine on and off?

That could introduce some *interesting[1]* handling issues.

[1] As in "oh God, we'll all going to die" - Hoban Washburne

Maybe I'm missing something here.....

....but considering conservation of energy isn't some of the power output from the diesel engine being used to charge the battery? This electrical power is used to drive and electric motor.

Are there not energy loses in wiring resistance and motor bearing frictions?

Doesn't this ultimately waste some of the energy in the diesel?

Wouldn't a smaller engine in a lighter car (no battery and electic motor to lug about) not be a better solution?

I never did very well at physics A-level, so perhaps someone could explain that all to me.

and it handles like........

a drunken sailor I expect with, to all intents and purposes, a random variation of power to front and rear.

So that'll be like most other 4WD banana wagons then.

As long as they don't try putting this in a real car that's fine with me

Rear wheel regenerative breaking

I'd assume its rear wheel only in order to keep the two parts of the system separate - if you had front wheel regenerative breaking presumably you would need a generator up front to convert motion into energy?

Re: Rear wheel brake charging?

> Everyone knows that the front wheels do the powerful braking. Thats why old cars used to have front disks and rear drums. Because what's on the rear hardly matters.

Regenerative braking isn't and cannot be used for "powerful" braking. It's only used when the car is slowing. As such, there's no reason not to use a hybrid braking system where current is drawn out of the rear wheels motor when the brakes are gently applied (or just when your foot is taken off of the accelerator) and then the actual brakes applied as you press harder.

If you need to stop a car then there is no substitute for traditional braking.

nice idea

It is a nice idea that can probably be retrofitted to other designs quite easily. Its like KERS for modern cars :) need a boost overtaking?