| [GMCnet] Interesting how fast things are changing in the car business - no direct GMC content [message #292386] |
Thu, 17 December 2015 17:21  |
glwgmc
Messages: 1014
Registered: June 2004
Karma: 10
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Toyota recently released details on the 2016 Prius which is slated to be in showrooms in January. This blurb from one of the racing pubs a few months ago is indicative of this rapid change. Five or ten years ago production car engineers would likely not have even been allowed around the factory racing engineers and vice versa:
"It’s expected that carmakers will apply lessons learned on the track to production cars, but it’s hard to believe Toyota’s TS040 Hybrid Le Mans racer and the humble Prius could have anything in common.
Yet the upcoming 2016 Prius will use some components adapted from the racing program, Toyota Motorsport president Yoshiaki Kinoshita told Automotive News(subscription required).
The parts in question are pretty small, though. They include microcontrollers, semiconductors, and other electronics hardware used to improve the efficiency of the powertrain.
In addition, engineers working on hybrid road-car development were cycled through the racing program for six months at a time."
Jerry
Jerry Work
The Dovetail Joint
Fine furniture designed and hand crafted in the 1907 former Masonic Temple building in historic Kerby, OR
glwork@mac.com
http://jerrywork.com
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Jerry & Sharon Work
78 Royale
Kerby, OR
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| Re: [GMCnet] Interesting how fast things are changing in the car business - no direct GMC content [message #292412 is a reply to message #292386] |
Fri, 18 December 2015 07:48  |
jknezek
Messages: 1057
Registered: December 2007
Karma: 5
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Senior Member |
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The future of the car and power industry globally is in efficiency. The MPG limits in this country, and others, guarantee these companies must keep making strides in this area. If you are dumping the money into your racing programs, you better leverage it out among the vehicles that actually make you money.
At some point we will hit the efficiency limit of an internal combustion engine. There better be another technology able to take us forward from there. I'm not a huge fan of hybrids. Perhaps a necessary bridge step, but generally having two motors instead of one is a lifetime inefficiency. So we'd better figure out the next couple steps forward in battery efficiency and reuse, or a giant step forward in hydrogen cells, storage, and distribution...
Thanks,
Jeremy Knezek
1976 Glenbrook
Birmingham, AL
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| Re: [GMCnet] Interesting how fast things are changing in the car business - no direct GMC content [message #292444 is a reply to message #292412] |
Fri, 18 December 2015 16:59 |
A Hamilto
Messages: 4508
Registered: April 2011
Karma: 39
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Senior Member |
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jknezek wrote on Fri, 18 December 2015 07:48...At some point we will hit the efficiency limit of an internal combustion engine. There better be another technology able to take us forward from there. I'm not a huge fan of hybrids. Perhaps a necessary bridge step, but generally having two motors instead of one is a lifetime inefficiency. So we'd better figure out the next couple steps forward in battery efficiency and reuse, or a giant step forward in hydrogen cells, storage, and distribution... The answer is simple to say, but not to implement - lightweight hydrocarbon (gasoline) fuel cell. Take the gas and convert it to electricity without the internal combustion engine and generator in between. Immediate 100+ MPG and only CO2 and H2O emissions (no NOX). It is already being done with methane and natural gas to generate power for buildings.
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