Ferrari Confirm Development of Hybrid Sportscars

by Brian Potter
July 8, 2008 6:00 PM
Filed Under: European, Ferrari, Green

Beyond hybrid technology going mainstream in high volume passenger cars, talk is spilling over into the arena of high performance cars. With recent ventures such as Gumpert's Apollo Hybrid Nürburgring racer, an assortment of specialty manufacturers and even motorsports granddaddy, Formula One, talking about it, the latest admission comes from Ferrari's President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo in an interview with German mag Welt am Sonntag by stating the world famous sports car maker will have a hybrid powered vehicle ready for the market around 2015.

In parallel with the research and development going on with Formula One's Kinetic Energy Recycling System (KERS), which is an brake energy regeneration system, the work being done will influence the development of a new Ferrari that uses an alternative energy source.

Despite a probable backlash from Ferrari purists, this isn't the first time Ferrari has looked towards greener pastures. In the beginning of 2008 Ferrari debuted the E85 powered F430 Spider Bio Fuel Concept in Detroit with the announcement that their goal is to reduce emissions by 40% by 2012.

Source: SMH.com.au via Jalopnik.com

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Comments

this is a great way to get power instet of loosing energy. Heinz-Harald Frentzen said right: You brake - you charge. The simply best for a sportscar

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by xlumino | July 8, 2008 6:13 PM

well done ferrari. well done :D

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by carcrazy1234 | July 8, 2008 6:58 PM

The F1 statute dictates the energy be reserved during braking, and reapplied while a steering wheel mounted button is pressed. Its maximum "on-time" would be 6sec. When I first heard that regen braking would be used in F1 I was skeptical. But after hearing how they intend to apply it I am awe-stricken. Eventually, it'll be like in video games when you press the "turbo" button and the car has this extravagant surge of power. The entire purpose of adding this to F1 is to help strengthen the tech for road use. I cant wait. That'll be too cool! Hopefully, this feature will be in the 2015 car.

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by benz_man | July 8, 2008 7:09 PM

Now I am surprised. Ferrari has a 42% potential to improve fuel exconomy in their cars just by applying standard technology. Despite being 100kgs lighter than the 997 Turbo the 430 uses 42% more fuel than the Porsche (18.3l/100km vs. 12.8l/100km). Why doesn't Ferrari start there? It would be great if the 430 were more economical because the large fuel tank (95 l) would give its driver the long range edge over the notoriously small tank in the 911 (just 64 l). But so far I just know that I don't need to worry about any Ferrari because I will overtake it for good at the petrol station...

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by Racketeer | July 8, 2008 7:54 PM

Good point. Ferrari jumping on the bandwagon now but Porsche has been taking this factor into its design already for a long time.

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by Get_Real | July 8, 2008 10:00 PM

40% less? they should have done their homework a few a years back. I mean the 997 twin turbo with 480 bhp emits more than 100g/km less CO2 than the F 430 with 490bhp. that´s HUGE. but anyway, at least they are getting involved into the environmental stuff now.

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by catchmyshadow | July 8, 2008 10:06 PM

I hope they use the Formula 1 style kinetic disks rather then lame batter packs.

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by joe_limon | July 9, 2008 12:57 AM

battery*

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by joe_limon | July 9, 2008 12:57 AM

I hope so, too. Also, it'd be in the best interest of Ferrari; they would suffer less backlash from purists because KERS technology is mainly mechanical and significantly lighter weight versus battery packs.

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by Bremen_Koenigsegg | July 9, 2008 5:20 AM

can green pea hippies really afford ferrari's?? coz if u r a real petrol head you would get the petrol version

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by BabyMilo | July 9, 2008 2:00 AM

Welcome to the 21st century, buddy. Next you'll want us to abandon forced induction and electronic engine mapping.

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by Bremen_Koenigsegg | July 9, 2008 5:23 AM

hehe, the step under that would be running with carburetors and implementing other Nascar restrictions.

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by joe_limon | July 9, 2008 8:06 AM

Yes, they should afford. Most of art, design architecture and music made by them in second half of last century, And all it have a price.

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by alessandro | July 9, 2008 11:27 AM

WTF alessandro ??? ... does anybody comprehend that blog ?????

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by daviepops | July 9, 2008 11:52 AM

Bravo Ferrari ... good to see cutting edge technology incorporated into the world's most loved supercar brand ... survival on both a personal and corporate level into the next century will require as all to evolve and accept the new world order of taking care of the planet ... before we kill it

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by daviepops | July 9, 2008 11:50 AM

WTF you say daviepops but things you are able to know are in general from that time.. In general that world has a face of people acting somewere 1956-1991. All they looked more or less like "hippies" afterward. Why or how - find out by yourself - I'm not a F replacment for anybody's education in humanities.

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by alessandro | July 9, 2008 1:04 PM

This is bloody STUPIDITY. People who can afford to buy expensive car(like Ferrari), but can't afford to buy fuel to drive it. Stop copying Toyota and Lexus' ideas.

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by American-Rules | July 9, 2008 3:25 PM

haha, but sorry, toyota wasn't the first company to come up with a hybrid concept. And Ferrari is unlike toyota in the fact that their system doesn't use heavy innefficient batteries. I like ferrari's disk's, they provide an instantaneous really noticable kick when they engage, and are closer to 60% efficient at recovering brake energy... whereas the best battery systems on the market can only acheive 30% of the braking energy to be recovered.

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by joe_limon | July 9, 2008 6:29 PM

Here we go: if you afford to buy zippo you should afford to burn something down in dry period at least.

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by alessandro | July 10, 2008 2:08 PM

Is interesting, how efficient these 2 systems are. BMW-s TM, called Efficient Dynamics looks quit same or designed on same basic idea like that KERS.

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by alessandro | July 9, 2008 7:06 PM