Ferrari goes green in Geneva

After decades of leading the world in fast cars, Ferrari is about to lead the fast car world into a more responsible future.

Its Geneva Motor Show stand was packed with big hints towards a greener future, including an unmissable matte-green 599 hybrid and the announcement of a start-stop system for the California that will reach Australian roads before the end of the year.

While the HY-KERS 599, which combines its powerful V12 petrol engine with a Formula One-inspired KERS-style system, was the star of its stand, the California will have the biggest impact.

A Ferrari spokesman insisted that it had targeted the California first because it was the Ferrari most likely to be driven every day. Employing the system, which Ferrari calls Stop&Start, to turn off the engine at traffic lights or whenever the car is stationary, will slash six percent from the car's fuel consumption.

By doing this, then restarting the engine in 230 milliseconds when the driver so much as brushes the accelerator pedal, it will also slash its CO2 emissions down to 280 grams/km, but won't impact its ability to sprint to 100km/h in under four seconds.

While the HY-KERS 599 is, itself, a hybrid somewhere between a concept car and a production car, the end result of this rolling laboratory is a V12 with a 35 percent reduction in fuel consumption.

Ferrari has long recognised that it (and its fellow supercar makers) needed to slash its emissions to comply with coming European legislation, and the light-weight HY-KERS is its first big step towards a production hybrid by 2015.

Supercars have traditionally struggled with urban emissions, where their high-tech engines are forced to live at inefficiently low rpm and low loads, but the 599 combines lithium-ion batteries and a new electric motor to give it an emissions-free boost.

Far from harming the 599's performance, its hybrid system not only makes it quicker, but, with its flat batteries below the floor, it lowers its centre of gravity as well, which improves its handling.

The HY-KERS's 40kg, three-phase electric motor mates up with a dual-clutch, seven-speed transmission, first seen in the California, but not offered for sale in the standard 599.

Dual-clutch gearboxes are essentially a combination of two gearboxes in one housing, so the electric motor hooks up to one gearbox shaft and one of the clutches, so it can seamlessly chime in with its extra torque the instant a depressed throttle asks for it.

It adds another 73kW (100hp) to the 599's overall output, but Ferrari claims to have hit its target of adding a horsepower for each added kilo.

The batteries are charged, like the F1 KERS systems, by using braking force. Its electric motor switches from being a power provider to being a generator  to charge up the batteries.

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