Gearheads, take note: Formula 1 racing is talking seriously about permitting gas-electric hybrid technology in F1 competitions as early as the 2009 season. Picture for a moment a 20,000-rpm, 750-horsepower machine braking into a chicane...and zipping onto a straightaway on battery power.
Green-leaning automobile shoppers can get a taste of the F1 gas-hybrid future today—by driving one of a few different hybrid hotrods that break the stereotype that fuel efficiency only comes in the package of an econobox.
Slip behind the wheel of the $55,000 Lexus GS450h sedan, and "hybrid" will be the first—and last—thoughts that come to mind. First you'll note, with geeky chic, that the car has not a tachometer but a "kW" gauge for—that's right—kilowatts. A display near the 160 mph speedometer shows a battery in various stages of charge. The center console's screen will toggle to hybrid mode and display your energy consumption.
And consume you will. Ever so gently depress the accelerator and the GS will stalk silently to 15 mph on full electric mode. But mash the go pedal, and five Mississippis later you're passing 60 mph—a fraction of this car's top speed—and looking for gobs of open pavement ahead for decidedly un-environmental antics.
Not enough? Try the $104,000 Lexus 600hL. This vehicle mates a 5-liter V8 engine with 389 horsepower with a high-output electric motor to produce performance equivalent to a 6-liter V12. At the same time, combined city and highway mileage rates in the low 20s—with 70 percent cleaner emissions than the "cleanest" of its V8 competitors.
For the same price, you might consider the all-electric Tesla Roadster. Silicon Valley-based Tesla Motors achieved instant rock star status in 2006 when the company announced details about its Roadster, a screaming-fast, all-electric two-seat sports car built on the frame of the Lotus Elise. Since then, it's been a nonstop media lovefest for Tesla and its heroic efforts to revive the dream of a mass-produced, zero-emissions electric car. There's a lot to admire, on paper, about the Tesla: 0 – 60 mph in less than four seconds, 135-mpg equivalent, 200-mile range, and a brilliant tech design that wires together nearly 7,000 mass-commodity rechargeable lithium batteries.
Tesla wasn't the first to produce this level of speed in an all-electric green machine. The folks at Monaco-based Venturi Automobiles make the Fetish, available for the bargain price of $400,000. The Fetish can bolt from zero to 60 in 4.3 seconds, and reach a maximum speed of 105 mph. The physics behind this level of performance: 330 horsepower pushing a carbon-fiber vehicle weighing only 2,425 pounds.
Does green speed always come at top dollar? Well, there was one real-world experiment of using hybrid technology to boost performance, rather than improve fuel efficiency: the Honda Accord Hybrid.
Honda took the second best-selling car in the country and used hybrid technology to soup it up, making it faster than any other family sedan on the market. This approach caught car reviewers and hybrid fans by surprise. One headline read, "Sips Gas. Hauls Ass." Environmentalists pinned the term "muscle hybrid" on the Accord. Only one problem: Sales of the Accord Hybrid ran out of gas. Sales reached 16,826 units in 2005, but when the field of hybrids expanded (to include the more fuel-efficient Camry Hybrid), customers vanished. Sales of the gas-electric Accord slid to 5,598 in 2006. In June 2007, Honda pulled the plug on the Accord Hybrid. The company shifted its plans to small, affordable hybrids with modest levels of performance.
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