Lotus Launches Hybrid & Electric Cars R&D Labs

It looks like a regular Opel (Saturn) Astra, but the car that's

pictured is completely

different. This vehicle is Lotus Engineering's

first attempt at creating a hybrid vehicle, and represents the launch

of a branch of the British firm dedicated to engineering and developing

hybrid and electric vehicles.

Underneath

its hood, Lotus Engineering has fitted a small 1.5-liter three-cylinder

gasoline engine featuring a turbocharger that's mated to a mild hybrid

drivetrain system. The 12 kW electric motor adds power, but not at the

cost of fuel economy, and because it isn't a full hybrid system that

allows the car to run on pure electrical power, it poses a price

advantage.

Lotus has also taken a load off of the main engine

by switching over the water pump and the fuel pump to items that are

purely electrical, a change that benefits the car with 2-percent

improved fuel economy.

As importantly, the new powerplant puts

out greater performance than most

entry-level gasoline engines on the

market today, at 158 horsepower and 177 lb-ft of torque. This also

betters the performance offered by the 1.8-liter inline-four sold in

the North American Astra. At the same time, the engine cuts back on

fuel economy and emissions by a significant amount.

By swapping

out the four cylinder for a three cylinder, Lotus has made the engine

smaller, some 35-percent less complicated, but more importantly about

20-percent lighter.

Lotus Engineering proves a point that many

automakers have shown in concepts; that downsizing for fuel economy can

be done with giant gains in fuel economy and equally large reductions

in emissions. We might see Lotus-derived powertrains soon too, as

they've officially partnered up with US-based ZAP electric cars.