Big Red Going Green: Ferrari Studying Hybrid System for Street and Race Cars
By John O'Dell March 5, 2009
The rumors have been around for a while now, but Ferrari chief executive Amedeo Felisa has made it official, the prancing stallion is developing a hybrid powertrain for its street cars.
Ferrari already is testing a hybrid kenetic energy recovery system in its Formula 1 race cars, and Felisa told Australia's drive.com this week that the company also is doing lab testing of a dual power system (the definition of a hybrid - two disparate power or fuel sources, such as electricity and gasoline) in its 599 coupe (right).
The Italian supercar manufacturer said last year that it would be concentrating on improving its environmental footprint, and Felisa said that the effort to improve fuel economy and cut emissions now consumes more than half the company's research and development budget.
He said Ferrari could have a hybrid car ready for sale by 2015.
Felisa didn't specify what type of hybrid system is being studied, but AutoblogGreen quotes Ferrari President Luca Cordero di Motezemolo saying it is the same type of electric KERS being tested in the company's race cars: a real-axle driven generator pumps juice into a storage battery and the energy is released via an electric supercharger to give the race-car engine a jolt of extra speed when demanded by the driver.
As we explained in a two-part KERS series early last year (Part 1, race cars, here, and Part 2, passenger cars, here) , kinetic energy recovery systems also can use flywheels to store and release energy.
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