Hybrid cars, transmission

[flattyre]

I've just recently taking driving lessons, and I think I've realised that the most fun part of driving is the 'control freak' aspect I get my speed thrills from karting and (hopefully in the future) track days or driving experiences. As that can't be done on the public roads I have to find other ways to have my fun.

My dad bought a hybrid car a few weeks ago, and it completely changed my opinion on them... I expected it to be slow and boring after what everyone says about them, boy was I provd wrong... it's way more racey than any average road car

Anyway, the thing that worries me is that it's automatic. Now to me, that sounds like it could take some of the fun out of driving. As I'm not that aware of how hybrid cars work, could some of you tell me if there's a chance that future cars will have a clutch and gearlever? These are half the fun of driving to me, and I wouldn't like to see manual transmission become a thing of the past

[747heavy]

technically there is no reason why a hybrid, could not be a "clutch&stick" car.
If you see the Porsche GT3R-hybrid, which raced at the 24h Nürburgring race this year. It still had a conventional gearbox and clutch.



However, it is very likely, that future production based hybrid or electric cars are automatic/semi automatic.
It´s the neater solution from a technical point of view.
But we could still see Hybrid Sportscars beeing manual, for the purists.

[forty-two]

I have to concur on the question of a Hybrid being horrid to drive. I am driving one at the moment and it is surprisingly fun to drive.

As for whether or not a hybrid can be manual, yes it could. Whether this would necessarily be a good idea, now that's a slightly different question.

If the point of a Hybrid is to imrpove fuel efficiency, then it is probably sensible to allow the computer to manage it.

If however the point is to get better performance out of a vehicle, then you could argue that a manual approach might be better.


However you tackle it, the losses incurred in storing recovered kinetic energy in batteries and then the losses converting that energy back into kinetic energy when needed, and disposing of the batteries when they're spent, and of course the penalty of carrying a stack of batteries around with you.... Perhaps Hybrids for "Green" reasons are a bit of a joke for the time being. But I guess one has to start somewhere.

[autogyro]

A properly designed hybrid gearbox (..), would allow the manufacturer to adapt it for what ever level of full automatic to full manual operation was required.
It could even be fully adjustable from one extreem to the other.
Current F1 gearboxes can be either fully auto or fully manual, it is simply regulations that set the method of use.