GM'S BAS hybrid systems vindicated : Toyota now planning a mild hybrid.

[steined]

We'll get stop-start, a real effective stop-start, when accessories stop being engine driven and are instead electronic. This will require the 36/42/48 volt systems that were talked about years ago. Once we get electronic AC compressors, etc, we should start seeing this happen.

I think detroit and all the atuomakers have quite a few tricks up their sleeve for MPG increases, but testing all these systems for durability and integration, trying to determine jump start methods, divising 2 electrical busses for high/low voltage, etc all takes significant time and money.

If you just add electric AC, waterpump, steering to the GMT 900s and add stop/start, I think you'd be looking at large increases in economy there alone. Add BAS and you'd probably have even more, though how effective BAS would be on heavier vehicles is questionable. I'd just do stop/start at first.

[eaton53]

Originally Posted by windvale

I've never seen an Aura or Malibu hybrid in real life...so I don't believe they actually exist. I asked my local Chevy dealer about buying a Malibu hybrid, and he told me not just that he didn't have one - but that he'd never actually even seen one...

Malibu hybrid = bigfoot

I've seen an Aura and driven a VUE. Thought the system quite unintrusive.

Malibus... it's hard enough to find more than handful regular ones in one place...

[packardlust]

Originally Posted by rozz

The problem with the BAS System is that GM calls it a Hybrid (normal people have mistaking it as a “FULL Hybrid”). I have not seen anything that said Toyota would call their version a "Hybrid"...Just “Stop/Go” feature. Therefore, they will not get any dissension for it.

The only problem with the BAS is that it isn't BAS+. Conceptually it is a elegant idea. It offers start/stop technology with regenerative braking in a "one" drive train configuration. It builds on existing technologies (start/stop, and generator/starter combo, and auto tranny that transfers power back to the engine (rear hydraulic pump maybe like in pre mid 1960's automatics?)). In combo with DI, HCCI, TURBO, small size, it is combo no other manufacturer is offering.