Hybrid Cars News
By Larry E. Hall
The 2012 Buick LaCrosse, redesigned in 2010, is helping to shed the image that only AARP card-carrying members purchase the tri-shield brand. The average age of Buick buyers has fallen in the last decade from the mid-70s to the late 50s. To help juice up this trend, and also appeal to entirely new buyers (read green and trendy), Buick is offering a green machine, the 2012 LaCrosse eAssist. It delivers an EPA estimated 25 city/37 highway and 29 combined. Those fuel economy numbers are up from 19/30/23 for the 2011 LaCrosse with the same four-cylinder engine.
Even though eAssist is similar in principle to the very mild belt-alternator-starter (BAS) hybrid system first used on the 2007 Saturn Vue Green Line and 2009 Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid, you won’t find the hybrid badge on the LaCrosse that adorned those earlier vehicles. General Motors is avoiding the H word this time around in part because the word has become synonymous with the Toyota Prius, and also to dodge previous complaints that this mild form of hybrid technology doesn’t deserve the hybrid name.
A BAS system – sometimes called stop-start hybrid and micro hybrid – is a relatively low-tech hybrid design. It is composed simply of an energy storage device, like a battery, and a beefed-up starter motor that can also act as a generator. It essentially shuts off the engine when the car stops, and quickly restarts it when the brake pedal is lifted. Depending on design, it can provide some electric assist to the engine at speed, but not all-electric operation.
Even though the LaCrosse eAssist is coming at a time when automakers are pushing toward greater degrees of electrification – and Honda for one is trying to engineer itself out of a mild hybrid approach that precludes plugging in – this lower cost type of hybrid technology deserves a place in the hybrid family. After all, a jump in fuel economy from 19/30 city/highway mpg to 25/37 mpg can yield a solid 30 percent gain in fuel economy.
By Huw Evans
Racing improves the breed, or so the old saying goes, yet in Audi’s case it certainly rings true. Following on from victories at Le Mans with TFSI technology (2001) and then the first ever diesel powered sports endurance racer (2006), the Ingolstadt automaker is attempting to go one better this year with a diesel hybrid prototype.
The car, which should prove a worthy rival for Toyota’s gasoline hybrid, the TS030, is seen as a logical step, especially considering Audi Sport’s experience with oil-burning technology.
