In the second of a three-part series for just-auto.com, Glenn Brooks looks into the future of hybrid vehicles in the world’s major vehicle markets.

As huge sums continue to be poured into hybrid R&D, most manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers still have little certainty of the future success of their various favoured technologies. While Toyota says it will be producing hybrid derivatives of the majority of its models by 2020, rivals such as Honda, the Volkswagen Group, General Motors and Ford have more modest, if still ambitious plans. Meanwhile, PSA Peugeot Citroën and Daimler are investing in diesel-electric powertrains, hoping that this could be the key to hybrids going mainstream in the larger European markets.

The case of Daimler and its former reluctance to invest in hybrid technology is an interesting one. Here is a company that has traditionally been an R&D leader yet also one that can be extremely conservative. While Lexus, the largest premium brand in the US market, now boasts hybrids in the majority of its model lines, Mercedes-Benz offers only two gasoline-electric vehicles, each of which is a high-priced niche product that sells in only small volumes.

While BMW continues to see hybrids as high-priced performance models, Mercedes-Benz thinks there could be various new niches for the technology and so is investing in both gasoline and diesel iterations – the former mostly for North America and the latter for Europe.

The first Mercedes-Benz diesel hybrid will be a variant of the E-Class sedan and should be badged ‘E 300 Bluetec Hybrid’. The combustion engine will be a retuned version of the firm’s existing 2.1-litre I4 turbodiesel. This will be combined with a brushless electric motor and a lithium ion battery similar to that employed in the S 400 Hybrid (gasoline model sold mostly in the US). The car’s launch is scheduled for late 2011 in Europe, with variants of the GLK-, M-, GL- and R-Class models expected to gain the same powertrain from 2012.

While Mercedes-Benz USA is said to be considering small-scale imports of the diesel-electric E-Class, a gasoline model, the E 400 Hybrid has been confirmed for 2011. This model should be powered by the same powertrain as that of the existing S 400 Hybrid and will be marketed as a rival for the Lexus GS 450h and two other models due to go on sale next year: the BMW ActiveHybrid 5 and Infiniti M35 Hybrid.

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Like the forthcoming gasoline-electric version of the BMW 5 Series, Infiniti’s first hybrid is scheduled to be launched in the US, Canada and Europe within the next six months (and in Japan as the Nissan Fuga Hybrid). The Infiniti M35 Hybrid will have a single electric motor/twin clutch arrangement to provide back-up power to its 3.5-litre V6. Innovatively, the first clutch is to be installed between the combustion engine and the motor, the advantage being all components acting on a single prop shaft to the rear differential.

With Nissan/Infiniti’s system, the electric motor is both a propulsion unit, boosting the V6 in ‘power assist’ mode when maximum acceleration is required, and a generator. Along with charging the battery in the normal way, the motor recovers energy otherwise lost during deceleration and braking. The M Hybrid can also run solely on its electric motor in certain conditions. One interesting aside is that the M35 Hybrid and Nissan Fuga Hybrid will each have the same animal and pedestrian warning system as the Nissan Leaf electric car: at speeds below 25km/h, an artificially-generated jet-like whirr will be emitted from the front of the car.

While Nissan and Infiniti look like being the first to market with cars that sound like something from Blade Runner, BMW is planning its own clever innovations for the forthcoming ActiveHybrid 5. This model has already been seen in concept form, that car having been fitted with a monitoring function for the Navigation system that ‘watches’ traffic patterns ahead and alerts the car’s systems to be ready for maximum use of electric drive where possible.

The production version of the ActiveHybrid 5 is seen by BMW as a performance model. It will be launched as a sedan only as the company says the 40kW battery’s boot-mounted position and size prevent the installation of folding seats. Neither a two-mode (such as the existing BMW ActiveHybrid X6) nor a mild hybrid (ActiveHybrid 7), the 5 Series hybrid’s powertrain is to be based on the modular system from the larger ‘7.

In the concept version of the ActiveHybrid 5, a 40kW motor allowed the car to be driven on electric power only (at low speeds). Also, unlike the biturbo V8 in BMW’s earlier hybrids, this experimental 5 Series was fitted with the 300hp twin-scroll turbo I6 from the 535i. A clutch between the engine and motor allows them to be disengaged for electric drive.

Away from the high-price end of the market, PSA should be the first manufacturer to offer diesel-electric hybrids. The Peugeot 3008, a compact crossover, will be available with this technology from early 2011 (as unveiled on the Prologue HYbrid4 concept car at the 2008 Paris Motor Show). The system is unusual for incorporating four wheel drive as standard: front wheel drive provided by the HDi FAP diesel engine and rear wheel drive provided by an electric motor. The latter also allows an all-electric drive mode, i.e. with zero emissions. A plug-in variant is expected in 2012.

Citroën too will have several vehicles fitted with the HYbrid4 system, with the forthcoming DS5, a derivative of the Picasso minivan, expected to be the first. The DS5 HYbrid4, which will be based upon the Hypnos concept from the 2008 Paris show is due to feature an electric drive system supplied by GKN Driveline with batteries said to be coming from Sanyo.

Having witnessed the rise of hybrids in Japan and the USA in recent years, even those manufacturers such as PSA Peugeot Citroën that were once sceptical about investing in the technology are clearly changing their minds. But there is also much hedging of bets going on too, as the third and final article in this just-auto.com series, a look at future EVs in Europe, North America and Asia, will show.

The table below, which lists details of over 60 future hybrid models, has been extracted from just-auto’s proprietary Production Life Database (PLDB). Currently, PLDB has 1506 models from 195 makes/brands from 127 groups.

See also: AUGUST MANAGEMENT BRIEFING: Hybrids and electric vehicles

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