A hybrid Ferrari? Don't rule it out

Posted Wed May 30 2007 1:04 PM by James Martinez

Governments around the world are bowing down to public pressure to reduce the levels of greenhouse gases their respective countries produce, and more often than not, the first sector they look at is the auto industry. The European Council has proposed a ruling that could see carmaker’s forced to limit fleet averages for CO2 levels at 130g/km by as early as 2012, something that could have disastrous effects for niche players like Ferrari. In fact, the changes have Ferrari so worried that engineers for both its F1 division and road-going cars are hard at work developing methods to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of its engines.

Ferrari management have maintained that any reduction of CO2 levels will not come at the cost of performance but recognize that they have a tough challenge on their hands. Ferrari technical director Amadeo Felisa, who spoke with

Reader Comments

Thu May 31 2007 2:59 AM
jontam says

they should just class them as light trucks, like the americans do with their SUVs
Thu May 31 2007 3:57 AM
admin says

Good idea. The next Ferraris might come with drum brakes then.
Thu May 31 2007 9:49 PM
HECTOR says

I am of the opinion that the horsepower war is getting out of hand. Ferrari already has two models over 600bhp, top speeds that will never be reached by their owners and 0-60 times only topped by teleportation.

If they want to try hybrid technology I'm all for it AS LONG as they don't sacrifice any Ferrari-ness in the process. Using a hybrid engine on a Ferrari must be a matter of *because we can do it and still kick ass* and not *because the bleeding heart tree huggers are mad at our V12 engines*.

PS - I'd take a 599GTB chassis even with a Prius engine under the hood. God that car is gorgeous!
Fri Jun 8 2007 2:22 AM
mx_tifosi says

I believe brake-energy regeneration is a good idea, considering F1 might use the technology in 4 years time (approx), it would even be another good marketing scheme to sell their road cars (F1 Technology > Road Car). IIRC, the e92 m3 uses it as well, and it is a 2008 model.

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