Something Different: Hybrid Cars.

As someone who is in the industry, I've been looking at what to expect in the future from automotive technology.

Electric cars are fairly straightforward: You charge a big battery, the motor drains the battery and when coasting the motor becomes a generator and the kinetic energy is returned back to the battery under regenerative braking. The only voodoo in an electric car is the efficiency of the motor and combining the regen and hydraulic braking.

The main focus on electric cars is range. Getting more capacity out of the same physical size battery and keeping that range long-term as well as improving efficiency of the electronics and the motor. Minimising the production of waste energy in the form of heat is the key.

Motor efficiency is the holy grail, trying to get the best mileage out of the battery capacity. Modern electronics can be designed with greater or lesser efficiency (see Chinese electric cars for the latter), the way the motors are wound, and how those windings couple magnetically at different speeds is a science all of it's own.

Battery technology is another science where much can be done to improve range, with the main battery technologies well understood. It's getting the formulation of the chemicals right and also maintaining the capacity of the battery over a large number of charge cycles is where the boffins are working.

The most technology goes into hybrid cars of all things. Trying to meld a petrol engine and an electric motor seamlessly requires a lot of effort and technology.

It's a shame that governments have effectively killed off the internal combustion engine, because there's a lot more technology that could be incorporated into a hybrid power train. Hydraulic valves that could be lifted independently of the pistons, so an engine can be turned over matching revs to the motor before the valves are sequenced as normal and the fuel and ignition are started, so the change from motor to petrol power is seamless without wearing out clutches, ultra-low emission engine like the new Mazda skyactive-x or petrol compression ignition engines could clean up the ICE part of the powertrain.

But I guess that manufacturers won't pursue ICE technology much further, given that the future is either battery powered, or Hydrogen fuel cell powered. Already compact hydrogen fuel cell generators are available for off-grid use, it's just getting the hydrogen that is the problem as there aren't many filling stations.

Such a shame. But when you see a hybrid car, just smile and think to yourself: "That's gonna break one day" and it will. Because all those complex electronics will fail. Thanks to the eco-loons, even automotive electronics moved over to eco-friendly solder, with less lead content. The lead keeps the solder flexible and without it the solder becomes brittle and resists vibration less. Oh dear, a bit of a requirement for automotive electronic applications.

The electric car suffers the same to a lesser degree because there's a lot less in the way of electronics to manage the powertrain.

So it's a case of when one of those many thousands of solder joints fails and renders the car helpless, not if.

The future of automotive technology is bright: (for the electronics repair facilities).