I have a dream that one-day hybrid technology and sport performance will be able to sit down together at the table of Subaru-hood. Ok so it is not quite the dream of Martin Luther King, but it is still a dream Is it far off and light years away? Why can’t the red-hot good looks of a wrx get over the top fuel efficiency with hybrid technology while still having the performance that we expect out of a Subaru. I would dare to dream of the day where in town and rush hour traffic was driven by hybrid and energy efficient low emissions technology but when you get the wide open road then let the horse power of our regular engine take over and experience that push back we long for? Is this concept embraced with in the Subaru community or is it best left to the “liberal granola eating hippies?†Now I don’t wear Birkenstocks but I do want more hybrids on the road. I know Nissan, Lexus, Toyota, Honda, and even crappy Saturn is doing great things with hybrids. Toyota is releasing a new hybrid Camry. So, is Subaru even thinking or experimenting with this yet. Does anyone have insight or heard rumors? Fill me in.
The current way they do hybrids is stupid. Its too mechanically complicated. The GM volt concept where the car is entirely driven by electric motors is what you need for good performance. Its basically the same way a freight train works. The army experimented with a HMMWV with one electric motor for each wheel and a diesel powered generator under the hood. It turned out to be too expensive, but it could do all kinds of cool traction control stuff since the power to each wheel can be controlled separately. That kind of thing could be pretty cool in a Subaru. It could also turn off the generator and run in silent mode off batteries for a while if they needed to sneak up on people and was way faster than a normal Humvee.
^^^ HIPPIE!!! J/K I would imagine they have something in development if they don't want to fall behind in the industry...
It would be nice for the distant future... But for the near future, it seems to me that any of the available hybrid technologies would make for modding nightmares. Not to mention the prospect of adding weight to the already heavy wrx/sti.
http://www.automobilemag.com/auto_shows/tokyo/0511_subaru_b5/ http://www.autoblog.com/2006/01/09/detroit-auto-show-subaru-b5-tph/ http://jalopnik.com/cars/concept-cars/tokyo-motor-show-subaru-b5tph-concept-127895.php /dream
As out there and jetson's as that looks it is one-step closer. I still can’t figure out why hybrid cars need to look so weird. Is it to much to ask to still be sexy? Don’t make me choose sexy or hybrid.
Yeah, it would be so nice not having to deal with turbo lag (electric motors produce all of their torque, as long as they are turning) Have a torquey electric to get the car up to spool time, then hello turbo time! Might make the car a little boring though...
