THE evo BLUEPRINT - FUTURE POWER

LAST MONTH WE EXPLORED WHAT’S REQUIRED FOR THE PERFECT INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE. BUT WITH ELECTRIFICATION UPON US, NOW WE ASK THE EXPERTS IF THERE’S STILL HOPE FOR CHARACTERFUL POWERTRAINS IN AN EV WORLD

- JOHN BARKER

WHAT IS THE BEST PACKAGE FOR A NEXT-GENERATION SMALL PERFORMANCE CAR SUCH AS A HOT HATCH: BEV (BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLE), HEV (HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLE), PHEV (PLUG-IN HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLE), OR FCV (FUEL CELL VEHICLE)?

Dr Frank Welsch, board member for technical development at Volkswagen: “PHEV is currently the best solution; it can drive with zero local emissions, has the advantage of lower maintenance costs, and also offers very good performance values with its two drives. The new Golf GTE has a system output of 180kW [242bhp], for example. That puts it on exactly the same performance level as the GTI.”

Richard Moore, propulsion director at Lotus: “It could be BEV or HEV. HEV gives the instant torque benefits of an EV plus the range performance of an ICE [Internal Combustion Engine]. For cost and packaging HEV is better than PHEV. The obvious trade between these two is that an HEV’s battery is charged from fossil-fuelled ICE and not from renewables. If it’s BEV this is dependent upon electrochemistry development in order to deliver the right entry price.”

Giles Muddell, chief engineer of advanced technology at Prodrive: “It may well be predominantly ICE-based with increasing levels of hybridisation to meet emissions requirements. Initially this is likely to be a 48V mild-hybrid, moving to PHEV. The generation after that is likely to be BEV, as we see increasing levels of pure electric vehicles come onto the market.”