Honda EV

As the automobile's second century gathers momentum, advanced-technology vehicles are emerging in diverse forms. Just as various types of powerplants vied for position in the dawning of the motor vehicle's first hundred years, so too are advanced propulsion technologies competing for their place in the early years of its second.

The promise of the 21st century automobile is tremendous. Every major automaker is striving not only to produce the best possible cars, trucks, and sport/utility vehicles for today's showrooms, but also to develop the next generation of vehicles that will distinguish its model lineup among its high-technology peers.

Some industry experts believe incremental improvements in existing vehicles and powertrains aren't nearly enough. Breakthroughs are demanded, and delivered. The intertwined pressures of increasingly stringent emissions regulations and the need to offer more socially conscious products are driving this field.

There is an immense worldwide competition to develop vehicles using non-traditional fuels and innovative powertrain technologies, bringing with it a wide array of vehicle and powertrain concepts. The most promising are ones that offer the common thread of electric drive, powered either by batteries, internal-combustion engine-generators, or such other onboard power sources as electrochemical fuel cells.

In many ways, these powertrain technologies are quite different, coming to us courtesy of both rocket science and more straightforward automotive research and design. However, their shared characteristics-extremely high efficiency, snappy performance, and environmental compatibility-make each of them an appropriate powertrain for the next-generation vehicles destined for American highways.

An Evolutionary RoadThe battery electric vehicle is one of the shining stars of the late 20th century, not due to significant consumer sales, but rather because this groundbreaking exercise proved there are more environmentally attuned ways to make cars and trucks.

Subsystems developed to make these vehicles workable-the lightweight and energy-dense electric motor, super-efficient motor controller, electro-hydraulic steering, electrically assisted power brakes, regenerative braking, and much more-are all advanced technologies that have become crucial to hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles.

Honda's EV Plus is an excellent example of how battery electric vehicles lead the technology learning curve. Fielded two years ago as part of a limited test marketing program involving 300 EV Plus examples, this Honda electric model has now found a home with families and fleet drivers. These drivers are providing important feedback to Honda regarding driveability, daily use, and other issues crucial in these early days of electric vehicle commercialization.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Honda EV Plus program is the vehicle's use of Panasonic nickel-metal-hydride batteries. Putting these advanced batteries in service has provided very valuable real-world experience with this all-new technology, something that hadn't existed prior to the EV Plus program.

Even as it was introducing the EV Plus, Honda was hard at work on its program to bring a hybrid to U.S. showrooms before the turn of the century. Building upon much of the electric powertrain technology developed for the EV Plus program, the Honda hybrid is sporty, quick, and more important, slated for a late-'99 launch.

Unlike other types of hybrids being developed, Honda's Integrated Motor Assist system incorporates a small and extremely efficient VTEC internal-combustion engine, an ultra-thin electric motor-generator, ultracapacitors, and a continuously variable transmission to achieve better than 70 mpg. The integrated hybrid powerplant uses the fuel-thrifty internal-combustion engine for primary power and the electric motor for assistance as needed.