Comments on: Peugeot-Citroën: Micro-Hybrids Standard by 2010

By: Euan Taylor

Euan Taylor — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:19:17 +0000

I agrree its a great idea and it would save shed loads of fuel if it was put in every car, however it doesnt work in every car, in the citroens you need to have the automatic sensodrive gearbox. I’m sure with some thought they could make it work with a manual gearbox, but to my knowledge it isnt being done yet. We should all be running second generation biofuels. CHIP OIL all the way!

By: Zaphod

Zaphod — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:28:13 +0000

I find the idea pretty good, but it's not new at all.
At the early nineteeen eighties, VW was already experimenting with this system.
As far as I can remember, the largest problem was wear.
The largerst wear in an combustion engine, is when it starts up, and oil films on bearing systems are being build up. During that time there is metal - metal contact rather than metail to oil.
So, how about the lifetime of these "micro hybrid" engines ?

Or DO we have a similarity to true Hybrids here - true hybrids tend to loose battery capacity ater a mileage of approx. 60~80 000.
Basically reducing the lifespan of the vehicle to half.
How about these environmental aspects : trashing your valueable car too early ?

By: sean

sean — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:49:28 +0000

A simple and effective idea, but will it wear out the starter motor more quickly? Hybrids do not because they use electric motor at the start and are specifically designed for that. I'm sure that French engineers have thought of that but the article does not clarify. Or I missed something?

By: Boom Boom

Boom Boom — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:03:32 +0000

I second Skeptic’s Complaint. Hybrid means there is a combination of two drive types (typically electric and gas). Just making a car start and stop more often to save gas (which is great) is not a hybrid.

By: jack r

jack r — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:12:07 +0000

If they put stop-start in all their new cars they would be close to CAFE standards in most cars.

By: Skeptic

Skeptic — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:24:50 +0000

Great idea and easy to do … just please stop calling it a hybrid!

By: mdensch

mdensch — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 02:28:46 +0000

With the new CAFE mandates going into effect, I would think this fairly simple step would help meet some of the interim standards. And I would think that simply incorporating the stop-idle feature would save millions of gallons of gas each day in dense urban traffic.

The point was driven home (no pun intended) for me when I was sitting in a traffic jam on a Chicago expressway with my Escape Hybrid. An accident in a tunnel near downtown had traffic backed up nearly 20 miles out and I was in stop-and-go-slow traffic for over an hour and a half. As cars around me continued to burn fuel and spew emissions I was watching my trip computer actually show mpg increasing as the gasoline engine was off most of the time.

By: uktiger

uktiger — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:00:44 +0000

Come on GM and Ford, this is proven technology. Every single car, just like an air bag.