New power generation: Honda on the cutting edge

Honda Motor Co. President Takanobu Ito shows Honda NSX hybrid concept car, left, and Honda S660 concept car at the Tokyo Motor Show earlier this month.
(Shizuo Kambayashi/AP Photo)

The Tokyo Motor Show may not be the must-see event it once was prior to the global economic meltdown of 2008, but it still packs a wallop when it comes to showcasing new ideas and new technologies.

For Honda Motor Co., while it’s safe to say certain models in the company’s lineup are unqualified successes – the Accord, for example – it’s equally correct to note that others have fallen far short of expectations.

On its stand at the show was the RA271, the car with which Honda first competed in Grand Prix racing in 1964. A few spots down was the latest prototype version of the Honda/Acura NSX, its highly anticipated sports car, which is due to be released in 2015.

By no coincidence, Honda will return to Grand Prix racing that same year as the exclusive engine supplier to the McLaren Formula One team.

 “The regulations in Formula One are going through major changes right now,” Takanobu Ito, Honda’s CEO, said through an interpreter during an exclusive roundtable interview session. “And they are changing in a very encouraging way for a manufacturer like Honda.”

The changes include a move away from the series’ naturally aspirated 2.4-litre V-8 engine to a turbocharged 1.6-litre V-6, as well as greater use of energy recovery technology. The expected specifications for the NSX reveal that Honda is on the same page: the hybrid will rely heavily on a turbocharged V-6 engine and on energy regeneration.

This technology, in a different form, was on display at the company’s R&D facility in Tochigi where journalists got a crack at the forthcoming Acura RLX Sport Hybrid SH-AWD (super handling all-wheel drive). The next flagship for Honda’s luxury division, which will arrive in Canada in 2014, employs a 3.5-litre V-6 gas engine linked to no fewer than three electric motors – one in the front and one at each rear wheel.

The motors in the back trigger a torque vectoring system that sends power to the outside wheels to help with cornering. While many all-wheel drive cars show a tendency to understeer in such situations (they don’t want to turn when you want them to turn), the RLX hybrid did not. In fact, a few quick laps around one of the test facility’s tracks revealed that the strength of the Acura could be its predictable, smile-inducing handling.

The RLX Sport Hybrid powertrain produces 377 hp, promises superior fuel economy to the non-hybrid version and showcases Honda’s first dual-clutch automatic transmission – so it will be a technological tour de force for the manufacturer. The NSX will also incorporate a hybrid all-wheel drive system, although details have yet to be released.

The SH-AWD system was just one of three hybrid powertrains that Honda has developed and all three were on display in Tochigi. We also sampled the i-MMD (Intelligent Multi-Mode Drive) system that is used in the largely wonderful Honda Accord Hybrid (on sale in Canada) and the Accord Plug-In Hybrid (which we may not receive).

“Hybrids will generate fuel efficiency that internal combustion alone will never give us,” Ito said. “We will see wide adoption of hybrids over the next 10 years.”

Hybrids comprise 40 per cent of the market in Japan, but a smaller percentage in Canada. Hybrids prove most popular when the price is not significantly greater than that for the non-hybrid equivalent, as is the case with the Hybrid Fit in Japan. In Canada, only the next-generation gas-powered Fit will arrive next year.

In parallel with the company’s continued focus on hybrid powertrains is its intention to develop “downsized” turbo engines, more Continuously Variable Transmissions, a smattering of diesels and, in the long term, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

“The hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle is the ultimate expression of personal mobility,” Ito said. “We believe it’s the best in terms of environmental performance. Until [it’s ready], there will be a number of efforts in other areas, including improvements to the internal combustion engine.”

Honda is at the crossroads – some of the car technologies being developed will have a limited shelf life, others may never bear fruit and still others could drive future success for decades.

Source;
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/new-cars/auto-news/new-power-generation-honda-on-the-cutting-edge/article15637882/

Ditching the Transmission Allowed Honda’s Accord Hybrid to Hit 50 MPG

Honda’s Hybrid Accord uses electric motors in lieu of all but one gear. 

by Kevin Bullis of www.technologyreview.com

 

Honda says it has found a way to improve the efficiency of hybrids—and in all likelihood significantly lower the cost to build them. For its new Honda Accord Hybrid, which goes on sale across the U.S. at the end of the month, it’s done away with the car’s transmission.

Hybrids could help automakers meet fuel economy regulations, but their sales are limited by high costs, which are as much as $5,000 more than conventional cars. It may eventually be possible to reduce the price gap to zero, according to a spokesperson from Honda.

Hybrids typically use complex transmissions, or power splitters, to coordinate between the gasoline engine and electric motor that propel hybrids. To get rid of this system, engineers designed the new Accord Hybrid so that most of the time the gas engine isn’t mechanically connected to the wheels. It serves only to spin a generator, which charges a battery. The battery then delivers electricity to a motor that drives the wheels. Electric motors can operate over a wide variety of speeds, eliminating the need to shift gears. To this point, the new design isn’t novel–it’s known as a series hybrid design.

But series hybrids aren’t always as efficient as hybrids that use a transmission. You lose energy when you convert the mechanical energy from the engine into electric energy to charge the battery, and then back into mechanical energy via a motor. (Taking this hit makes sense sometimes, since storing energy in a battery makes it possible to keep the engine operating in its sweet spot, avoiding loads and speeds where it’s very inefficient.) In the early days of talking about the Chevrolet Volt, GM made it sound like it would be a series hybrid. But engineers introduced a complex transmission to allow the gas engine to drive the wheels directly in some situations, improving efficiency by 10 to 15 percent.

Honda found a simpler approach. It uses the electric motor to get the car up to a steady, highway speed. At that point, a clutch allows the gas engine to drive the wheels directly. Basically, the car has only one high gear, and it uses the electric motor in lieu of all the other gears.

Honda says this system is key to allowing the car to get 50 miles per gallon in the city and 45 miles per gallon on the highway, impressive figures for a car its size. In comparison, the non-hybrid version of the Accord gets 26 mpg city and 34 mpg highway, and the similarly sized Toyota Camry Hybrid only gets 43 mpg in the city and 39 on the highway. (The Ford Fusion Hybrid officially comes close, with 47 mpg in both the city and highway, but Consumer Reports found the actual mileage was far lower—just 35 and 41 in city and highway.)

The new approach does have the potential to reduce costs and improve efficiency, says John Heywood, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. But he notes that transmissions are also getting very efficient, so every automaker isn’t necessarily going to take this path. He expects the cost difference between hybrids and conventional vehicles to decline to $2,000 by 2030. “Costs will come down, but there’s a lot more stuff in a hybrid, so it’s inevitably going to cost somewhat more,” he says.

Source;
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/520106/ditching-the-transmission-allowed-hondas-accord-hybrid-to-hit-50-mpg/