Submit Your Questions for Honda’s Chief Engineer About Hybrid Cars
I will have the opportunity to interview Honda Chief Engineer Mr. Yoshio Yamamoto this Saturday. If you have any questions about Honda’s hybrid cars, post them below!
I met Mr. Yamamoto today while visiting the Honda booth at the Eco-Products 2008 Exhibition. Displayed was the new Honda Insight concept, which is close to the production model. I loved driving my 2000 Honda Insight and am excited about the next generation. Mr. Yamamoto and Assistant Product Manager Mr. Hatano were happy to hear from a former first generation Insight owner.
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I agree with Nick Chambers that the new Insight Concept resembles the Prius, but I also thought that the second generation Prius was similar to the first generation Insight.
Mr. Yamamoto agreed to an interview this Saturday. He is the Chief Engineer and is greatly involved with the development of Honda hybrids. He is willing to explain general hybrid technologies and development, but won’t be able to divulge specific details.
So, if you have any questions or requests, please let me know by posting below this article. I plan on asking him about the CRZ hybrid and letting him know that I want a FR compact hybrid coupe. I’ll bring your questions along as well. I will check here again around noon PST on the 12th.
Will the new Insight be a plug-in hybrid capable of running in electric mode?
Why hasn’t Honda and many others included wheel motors in their designs? That will eliminate a lot of drive train and mechanical brakes.
Is Honda considering any ot the carbon nano-tube capacitors instead of batteries?
Mark Seall
A long time ago Formula 1 was a series that provided much development that could be transferred to production cars. Currently however it is just another racing series controlled by billionaire with strict rules on technology that actually prevents innovative technology and focuses on incremental development of existing technology. This can be traced back to the use of the Lincoln EEC IV engine control module rather than developing a completely new one. It seems that the Lincoln module had more than enough capability to handle all of the Formula 1 needs with much capability left unused.
It still provides some great racing though. At least it doesn’t have a full course “debris” yellow to bunch the field and prevent the leader from putting the promoter’s favorite a lap down.
I keep harping on this point but the plain fact is that trading Internal combustion engines for Coal or Oil fired Electrical plants in these planned plugin hybrids is an issue. Most of the country is suffering from nimby-itis whan it comes to building a new power plant. So where do the plants go? I understand that the efficency of these plants to make electricity is probably higher than the IC engine to make circualr motion but we are already short on power, ask CA if you don’t beleive me. Building otehr power plants needs to be on the table and a plan put forth. I guess the question is how much more effcient are these electrical cars over an IC engine not in MPG but in Kilowatts to move the car. How Kilowatts per Car is required to charge them. This ought to give us some insight into future power plant needs.
#1>
Why is a second clutch not used for HEVs to get into a EV-move? It seems like a simpler & easier method than what is currently used in production models.
#2>
Is there a point of higher %s of lean burn use ( duty cycle ) where further use begins to significantly effect service life or wear life of the engine? Can the Lean Burn function of vehicle like the Insight be run for any length of time if other means of emission control were available?
#3>
Is Honda doing any work toward rotary style engines of any type?
#4>
What if any is Honda’s interest in waste recovery systems? I’ve read about some research in recovering some of the waste heat from radiators or exhaust systems into electrical power.
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Thanks for this rare opportunity.
In response to Tetsuya Yokoyama’s post at Insight Central two questions are offered:
Given the advancement in battery technologies; Is Honda researching options for better batteries? For example an upgrade from NiMh to LiPo, or bigger Kwh battery packs. Maybe an “entry” level NiMh with a better _MPG_ performing LiPo (more agressive battery usage).
Along the same lines; Is Honda considering improved hybrid battery management strategies? For example _active_ battery balancing at the individual cell level to extend service life.
Thank you very much everyone for responding my article !! I’m sorry for such a short notice. I really do appreciate you all bring up great questions.
I think the Interview was very successful overall. I could get a lot of interesting answers from him.
I will write several articles on the Eco-Proudct event including this interview, other green cars, and various green non-cars topics too.
The Eco-Pooduct 2008 was huge. I could have spend 3 extra days to explore more.
I’m totally exhausted. Just let me fall into bed.
Tetsuya
I hope Mr. Yokoyama recovers soon. I can’t wait to read this interview report. Is there anyone who can go over to his house and make sure he’s OK? Just kidding, Tetsuya. You deserve your sleep. But how can I sleep without knowing the new Insight’s coefficient of drag?
Mr, Johnson, thank you very much for worrying my health. I am all right. I guess I lost at least 5lb during the fair though. I think I will put some pictures up on the article later. You can see my face looking not-so-good for the photo-op. Believe or not, I could only be able to get four hours sleep and several instant sleep cycles in the Tokyo crowded trains for these three days.
Anyway, I need little more time to write this interview article. You know it’s not easy to write artile by converting Japanese interview contents into English, especially with some technological detials involved. I am also writing several other articles about the fair including some green cars related which Gas 2.0 readers may be interested in.
By the way, I am a new writer here at Green Options Media, and this is another reason my article could be late to publish. GO Media editors help me a lot. I hope the aricle will be publsihed by the end of this week.
Response to David Jelen - the original Insight will do 100mpg if driven - the design is over 10 years old but its economy still has to be bettered by a car manufacturer
My article (part1) finally published to read. Sorry for giving you a long wait.
Exclusive Interview With Honda’s Chief Engineer - Part 1: Ultracapacitors
http://gas2.org/2008/12/23/interview-honda-chief-engineer-mr-yamamoto-part-1/
Part 2, 3… will come later.
ty