Ok - i know it's a crazy question, but I just had this discussion with a co-worker who just bought a Prius. After comparing my Z and his new Prius, I wanted his gas mileage and he wanted my sports car power/look.

we both asked ourselves if we would consider buying a sports car like a Z if it were a hybrid? - even if it was, let’s say only 250hp. With the gas prices these days, I think we would have the best of both worlds - especially if you use it as a daily driver.

we finally agreed that we would definitely buy a hybrid Z!

I think its just a matter of time for one of the car manufacturer (probably Toyota) to come out with a Hybrid sports car. They already have the SUV.

So what do you guys think – is there a market for a Hybrid Z?

 

There are 3 alternatives I can see:

1. Get a body kit for the Prius and buy a turbo kit (yes, for some reason it exists).

2. Buy a Honda Accord Hybrid, they do get 250 BHP.

3.) Just buy a Prius to commute. Own a Z for the weekends.

 

I would buy a hybrid Z.

 

Absolutely! In fact, it makes a lot of sense for performance reasons. Electric motors put out tremendous torque, very quickly. Don't be surprised if you start to see hybrid race cars in the future.

You get better mileage if you run electric, better range if you run gas, but combine the two and you get better acceleration and power.

I could see adding AWD with a hybrid configuration. You could run electric drive to the front wheels and electric+gas drive to the back wheels. Handling would be improved by having AWD.

 

Hybrid is the future. Why not. Better mileage and more hp.

 

Only if it was faster, otherwise NO

 

I’ve been watching hybrid production for the past several years, and I’m surprised with the commutative hp increases. But peak hp is one thing, and a performance hp and torque curve are another.

A hybrid that makes 300 hp may no be suitable for a high performance sports car.

 

I prefer a good old gasoline powered sports car, when theres no more oil left, and Im walking, then I'll buy something else. Call me stupid or close-minded but untill then, I'm not driving an electric powered car.

 

A little off topic but I got the Autoweek magazine and they had a MIEV Evo, with electric motors for each wheel and some other things to economize gas. What made me curious was that it had 67 hp and 382 lb-ft of torque ????

 

i would consider one for touring.. but not driving down the road like mad. :P

 

It would sound like a p.o.s., no massive internal combustion going on equals a lame exhaust note. You would feel the acceleration but you would be cheated out of the sense of sound of a high perform. car....I want the whole experience. Just my $.02

 

I'd go by that reason if I wasn't living in the Seattle area--- where there's heavy traffic almost anywhere you go--- rendering the capability of going fast utterly useless in many situations.

 

I've seen more than a few articles on hybrid performace car concepts. I believe that it's not a bad idea except for the fact that a decent IMA for performance purposes would have to be considerably greater that what you find in a Prius or Hybrid Civic to offer any real grunt if mated to a VQ35. This would require a larger battery pack and that would just add to the weight issues that the Z already has. The question at that point would be; does the extra weight (although it could be placed in a low and centralized location) hinder the performance gains given by the extra grunt it gives? More fuel efficient, yeah that would be 2nd to performance IMO.

We'll see more hybrid concepts and production cars in the coming years. Seems as though battery technology is the limiting factor in the success of hybrids and Li-Polymer batteries seem to be the best solution currently, but it becomes prohibitively expensive to build and maintain a large pack (Plus I hear that there are some heat issues). The demand of the auto industry will make large packs cheaper as more manufactures build them for the purpose of hybrids/pure electric cars.

I don't think the next generation Z will be hybrid but if the blood-line lives long enough, somewhere down the road we might see one (or maybe even a pure electric or hydrogen powered). By that time the issues and bugs should be worked out. So when that day comes and I'm still one of the Z faithful; yeah I'd buy it.

 

if all the long-term questions about hybrids are answered then yes, I would buy a Z hybrid.

if you had a current model Z correctly configured in with a similar engine setup to the Toyota Highlander or Lexus RX330 hybrid you would actually end up a Z with 15-20 percent more horsepower and a ridiculous amount more torque at launch (think in the 4 digit range, but it doesn't really translate the same way). you would also likely get around 26mpg city and 30mpg highway.

the concerns which many of the people who are jumping on the hybrid band wagon may not be considering is that the cost vs benefit ratio of hybrids is not yet complete. the typical hybrid costs somewhere around $5000 more than the nonhybrid model which is a large cost to offset in terms of mpg. currently you can get a tax credit for up to $2000 for purchasing a new hybrid which helps, but then you also have long term costs to keep in mind. such as no one knows for sure how long hybrid batteries will retain a full/optimal charge. most of them use nickel-metal hydride batteries which are the same type you find in many small electronics like your cordless home phone or older cell phones which tend to have shorter and shorter charge life the more you use it. and what about resale? current hybrids are usually warrantied for 8-10 yrs, and they all need to have their batteries replaced right after the warranty period expires. thats a repair cost of about $8000 at current market value. are you going to want to pay for that, and if not then who is going to want to buy a vehicle with that kind of pending repair needed?

so you'd either need to drive a whole hell of a lot of miles or the cost of gas would have to go up way more than it currently is to make up for the cost of owning a hybrid. (some of this info I got from Car and Driver Mag).

 

Why would you say that? Hybrids do offer alot more oppertunities with performance. In this time and age, its just not cost effective but like someone said, it is the future.

If it looks nice goes fast and handles well, who cares what's under the hood.

 

If all the performance was still there, why not! Of course that would be a very expensive Z.

 

I don't see your logic.

 

We are gonna get a look at electric powered 4-wheel drive in the new GT-R, though, only driving the rear wheels. How exactly Nissan will implement, we'll see in a month.

There are other reasons why electric makes sense. No pollution- air or noise, the noise part some of you may see as a drawback (who doesn't like a mean sounding engine?). And no engine consumption of power at a stopped position.

With the positives outweighing the negatives IMO (throw in cost of gas, and preserving the earth for future generations), sure I'd buy one in a heartbeat (IF THE PERFORMANCE IS ON PAR WITH THE current 350z).