Nissan going plugless hybrid route like Chevy Malibu

viking79 said:

I don't understand why people are complaining about this, it is a definite step in the right direction for ICE. It also means common AC and other high voltage components to take alternator and engine belt loads off.

Click to expand...

My complaints were not with the car but with the marketing.

An electric car without a plug that is only sold overseas , is unsettling to me and obviously others in both the EV and hybrid worlds.
It is a step back from a plugin and should not target plug ins.
Whether it's marketing excites average drivers we will see.

The fact is that those of us who want a true EV "hope" that Nissans very novel small, cheap and lightweight generator in a motor series electric drivetrain gets a plug.
But since the car is not plug in and doesn't beat the Prius, us EV heads find it irritating because no plug no sale for many.

My hope is that this novel drivetrain ends up far more efficient than normal series due to the generator being inside the motor.
Also it must be bulletproof reliable which makes Nissan viable (to me at least) and hopefully allows them to release this lightweight drivetrain into all their offerings .

If they can beat Prius motor efficiency over certain speed ranges and gain platform efficiency due to weight savings and be 33% or more less expensive than a Prii I think it's a real win.

Anything that removes normal ICE autotragic cars off the road and makes them more reliable and efficient is a win to me.

Put a DI 2 cycle on it and a plug it would be golden.

But for gods sake offer a plug in version.

jsmay311 said:

Serial hybrids intuitively seem like they should be very efficient if you can run a small engine at optimal rpm's. That's what I thought circa early 2010.

They use a parallel configuration DESPITE its complexity precisely because it's more efficient.

The reason (explicitly stated in the article) for Nissan to choose a serial configuration for this vehicle is cost.

Click to expand...

Series hybrids can be more efficient than a standard auto transmission.

Historically they could be up to 70% efficient which was better than old Hydromatics

Nissans claim is that they made a more efficient electric cvt.

By having the generator inside the electric motor acting directly on it like a transformer it is possible they have gotten its through efficiency up.

Until hard motor generator efficiency numbers are provided and real world non-Japan cycle fuel numbers come to light I am cautiously optimistic.

On the Japanese cycle the Nissan note hybrid is on par in city numbers VRS Prius and about 10% below on highway but again the Japanese cycle is rather meaningless and the type of car the us gets is usually different than the Japanese version.