Quote:
Originally Posted by cs4444
Kers would add weight and $$$$. It sounds like M is pretty determined to cut weight every way they can.
With that said the new Mercedes S63amg just debut, and it has a smaller lithium ion battery instead of a conventional car battery which saves the S class around 40lbs...I bet the M3/M4 will do the same.
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Good point about the new S Class, and you may be right as far as the M3/M4 using such a battery. I think the 991 may also use something similar, at least as an option.
Still he could have just said "as a replacement for today's [heavy] lead-acid batteries", but instead he used the language "for auxiliary functions and support systems". Remember, the question was about a hybrid drive. I think he elected to qualify his answer carefully so as to not later be called out if/when M does employ technology that could loosely be grouped in with such types of drive systems. In other words, I think he was covering his bases by clarifying things right up front: we may use energy storage and we may use it to power electric motors like a hybrid does, but not connected to the drive wheels themselves.
And yes, It is true that KERS will add weight, but so too will whatever solution they have engineered for the turbocharging system vs. the N55. For that matter, in general, high performance parts weigh more than non-high-performance ones. This is why all past M vehicles outweigh their non-M siblings. So, to the extent that M must employ solutions that allow their products to sit at the top of the performance heap, so too must they continue to accept that they will be penalized in the weight department for the use of those solutions. The key, then, is to eliminate weight in other areas where it is possible to do so without either accepting less performance or less durability/reliability as a result of the added performance.