if i am not wrong... it's 70 lit vs around 50 lit for CT200H... furthermore, the passat has a more efficient turbocharged motor than the CT200H...

it depends on how lexus configure the electronic motor to kick in on expressways.. but driving at stable speeds... i am not sure if the electric motor is giving assistance to lower fuel consumption... if totally none, then the 1.8L will be straining if driven at speed...

i think car manufacturer are afraid to bring in diesel models due to poor quality diesel in malaysia... i am sure someone will refute this.. but, i think it is generally the reason why and also the lack of interests...

there is a very famous eco friendly VW bluemotion launched in european countries some years ago... but until now never reached our shores...

having to generate that much power means carrying a big battery array which means extra dead weight which is not really good...

yes, electric motor has flat torque unlike petrol motors.. but an eco hybrid has to balance between power output and consumption... the current hybrids are only concentrating on energy recovery and using an electric motor to provide assistance to reduce the usage of fossil fuel and generation of co2... else, we all be driving tesla roadsters : )

you have a point there...

and jeremy tried to prove that hybrid owners don't understand driving as driving is... for sure, you can argue if jeremy were to gun the m3 and leave the prius behind instead of following it around, it would have dried it's tank up in that 10 laps...



at the end of the day.. the thick headed jeremy clarkson is right...

“it isn’t what you drive that matters, it’s how you drive it”

electric motors produces peak or majority of it's torque from the start and is able to maintain it through it's rev range... this means you get to move off from standstill say a traffic light or pulling out of a corner fairly easy with the electric motor assistance... it provides torque to launch the car forwards where the petrol engine is lacking during move off...

i don't think our insights or hybrids are capable of that sort of power outputs whether they can hold it through the entire rev range or not...

OK, they have flat('ish) torque... with load, electric motors will generate an almost fixed amount of torque depending on the current being fed into it ... so, it depends if the manufacturer will vary the current being fed into the motor to control the power output...

as for petrol combustion... it requires the right amount of air fuel mixture to produce or in other words maximize the fuel being fed into the combustion chamber... dumping an equal amount of spray into the combustion chamber at 1,000rpm does not mean it will produce torque equivalent when the same is done at 3,000rpm simply because the combustion chamber does not have that much vacuum to suck in that much air at that point and full combustion of the petrol spray does not occur...

hence, the torque should be flatter than a petrol engine in comparison...

This post has been edited by butthead: Apr 23 2012, 02:46 PM

on 2nd thought.. maybe, i should have used linear better than flattish... that seems a more suitable word in this scenario...

you see the torque decreasing due to the increasing output speed (this is exactly what your article says)... same applies to an internal combustion motor... as you increase output speed, the torque will also decrease assuming a simillar amount input is fed to the motor through out the range...

"The graph above shows a torque/speed curve of a typical D.C. motor. Note that torque is inversely proportioal to the speed of the output shaft. In other words, there is a tradeoff between how much torque a motor delivers, and how fast the output shaft spins. Motor characteristics are frequently given as two points on this graph:"

my point previously was that and i admitted for using the wrong word that electrical motors have a more linear torque curve compared to a petrol motor... and as long as a load exists, and constant power is sent to the motor, it should provide same torque rating throughout... it is back to how they vary the current fed to the electric motor to adjust the torque output....

this has nothing to do with engineering studies.. it is general knowledge as this are things you come in contact with in daily life...