Ferrari tests hybrid technology in 599

The marque synonymous with high-powered petrol burners is moving with the times - cautiously

Ferrari is taking its first steps towards hybrid power. But don't expect the petro-electric 599xx unveiled in Geneva to reach showrooms any time soon. The company is estimating it will be 2015 before an alternative powered vehicle of any sort bearing the prancing horse reaches showrooms.

Amedeo Felisa, the company's CEO, told media in Geneva that environmental performance tops its priority list these days -- consuming more than half of the company's considerable R&D budget. The first goal is a 40 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions across its petrol range by 2012.

By the time Ferrari's first hybrid goes to market, makers like Toyota will be on their third or fourth iteration of the technology. But if there's one marque that can afford such comparative tardiness, it's this one.

Ferrari is a company that's invested billions of dollars over decades in high-tech, high-strung, high-maintenance, high-input, high-output, high-cost engines that idle where others redline, thus the pending demise of the technology you've spearheaded isn't good news.

That's where Ferrari stands at the moment, with the technology in which its raison d'être is deeply rooted now clearly headed for history. What the company has on its side is an almost unparallelled facility for R&D and refinement - it has, after all, sat for years at or near the top of the sport acknowledged as the auto industry's most sophisticated and cashed up laboratory.

So whatever the Modena boffins come up with between now and 2015, they'll be making sure it's worthy of the badge. Their thoroughness is perhaps reflected by what's been reported to be going on in their F1 pits with the comp's introduction year of kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS).

That 599 showcar is rumoured to be playing the role of a civilian test bed for variations on the KERS systems they're rolling out on to the track.

The company reportedly put several variations on the KERS theme to the test during 2008 but found all of them wanting, with problems including weight conflicts with the aerodynamically all-important front wing, the proximity of high voltage wires to the cockpit and the inevitable conflict between the imperatives of performance and the friction intrinsic to regenerative braking.

As for full electric drive, others may see it as the way to go to get friendly with Mother Earth, but not Ferrari.

Hybrid technologies, Felisa told media at the Geneva show, can be used to cut fuel consumption, boost performance or balance out both. But full electric appears too much of a betrayal of heritage.

"I don't think that is suitable for Ferrari," he said.