DRIVING TOWARDS 2030
The choice of electrified cars grows on an almost daily basis, and here Chris Randall highlights some clever engineering from Nissan and Honda.
If you’re not yet ready to go fully electric, or a plug-in hybrid still doesn’t quite meet your needs, then two Japanese carmakers have introduced some alternative ways to experience electrified motoring. Their systems employ some very clever technology that promises to cut fuel consumption and emissions without what some driver’s may see as the compromise of having to plug in and recharge.
The first of them we take a closer look at is Nissan’s e-POWER set-up, launched back in 2017 on the Japanese-market Note and now available in the ever-popular Qashqai. Consider the powertrain as similar to a range-extender and you won’t be far wrong, the system blending a 1.5-litre 3-cylinder turbocharged engine with a 140kW electric motor and a 2.1kWh lithium-ion battery. The innovative tech starts with that petrol engine which optimises performance and economy through the ability to vary its compression ratio – an actuator alters the length of the piston stroke resulting in a ratio of between 8:1 and 14:1. But the most important thing to note is that the petrol engine never directly drives the front wheels. Instead, the electric motor is the sole source of power to the wheels and at low speeds it receives energy from the battery.
When higher speeds are called for the engine acts as a generator, sending electricity via the inverter directly to the drive motor and to the battery for recharging, and should maximum acceleration be needed the electric motor draws power from the both the engine and battery. Nissan say that a couple of miles should be possible on electric power alone, but that in reality the engine will be working most of the time.
And to make the driving experience feel as natural as possible Nissan’s engineers developed a system called ‘Linear Tune’ which progressively increases engine speed as the motor requires energy. The result is greater connection between engine noise and road speed, avoiding the soaring revs that can often accompany CVT transmissions.
A regenerative braking system also feeds energy back to the battery, and allows ‘one-pedal’ driving where little use is made of the hydraulic brakes. It’s all clever stuff and the result is claimed fuel economy of 53.3mpg and CO2 emissions of 119g/km. Those figures might not sound as impressive as you’d hope, but compare them to the 44.5mpg and 143g/km claimed for the 138bhp 1.4-litre DIG-T unit that’s also available in the Qashqai and they represent useful improvements.
Honda Hybrid
That brings us to the latest version of the Honda Civic
