If the electric sits on the engine crankshaft the regular AWD system could be used which means adding more power to the engine will still go to all 4 wheels. Just like the Ford Fusion Hybrids which although FWD, have the electric motor directly powering the transmission.

That's the safest bet for not clobbering motorsports applications. Otherwise it will look bad when serious teams *rip off* the electric equipment to race. No, Mitsu will want to market it so they can say in big headlines "Evo XI race team uses $EV_TRADMARK to win the $RACE!!!!".

One nice thought though is that the motor could be more powerful with a larger laggy turbo if the electric assist could flatten out the pedal feel and hide the lag.

Imagine a 30R sized factory turbo with 100hp of electric assist below 3500rpm.... that could be really fun depending on how big they go.

 

remember the Eclipse concept?

 

I'm pretty sure that won't happen. Logistically speaking, it wouldn't make sense for there to be a mechanical connection between the front and rear wheels. The battery would either need to be split or adjusted (costly). There would then need to be (at the very least) a center and rear differentials of some kind, which would add even more cost and complication (not to mention weight on a vehicle that would already weigh 4,000 lbs). Basically, it just wouldn't be smart.

Unfortunately, the days of making easy power on EVOs is probably over. Anything you do to the engine will also need to be done to the electric motors and electronics that are guiding them. Basically, you'll need to tune the entire system together. And the programming to run these cars is going to be far harder to crack and work on than the current EVO CANbus tuning.

 

While performance diesel engines are not unheard of - there's a lot of variables Mitsu has to get RIGHT for the Evo IX to soar in this fashion.

One of the things about hybrid/electric cars I've noticed these days is that they're either:
1) a lot of hybrids are not TRUE electric
(a generator of sorts that runs off the motor, thus robbing power if you look a tit from a basic standpoint)
2) batteries are still large, heavy, and expensive
(I see most people are of the opinion that the Evo X suffers from being heavier. Imagine what the Evo IX would weight with batteries!)
3) the amount of actual usability you get off the electric can vary, or is limited.
Granted, I'm definitely not an expert. Correct me if I'm wrong in any of these areas, these are just quick observations from the little knowledge I have picked up.

Tl;dr, I side with everyone else who thinks it just won't be the same...
ESPECIALLY if in the process Mitsu's AWD system suffers! But I would test drive it when it comes out.

 

The Audi R8 has a disel option in Europe ,no?

 

No hybrid is a "true" electric, and in this case, I think you need to look at the symmetry of things. First, the generator doesn't really rob power, per se; it refills the battery and/or runs the electric motors. However, in this case, it's important to remember that electric motors can also operate as generators, which is how I think Mitsubishi will design the front drivetrain. The engine will be linked to a single motor/generator, and in tandem, they will drive the front wheels, feed power to the rear motors, and recharge the battery.

The battery is where Mitsubishi could go really, really wrong. The Oulander PHEV will come with a 14 kWh battery pack, which probably weighs about 350 lbs, but due to the capacity, it won't be eligible for the full $7,500 tax credit. If they keep that model for the EVO, the EVO also won't be eligible for the tax credit, making it less affordable. Further, in this instance, I think the weight is less of an issue because the EVO has more to give. Ever weighed the transmission, front differential, ACD, driveshaft, rear differential, and AYC? They are quite heavy, and the will ALL be removed on a EVO PHEV. Basically, I'd rather they just add the 50 lbs and give us a full 16 kWh capacity or greater.

I'm not sure what you are referencing by this. Range or power? The power should always be the same (more on that later), but range will always be dependent on driving style as much as battery capacity. If you are the time that races from stoplight to stoplight and doesn't know how to manage energy, the range will probably be poor. If you know how to drive conservatively, you'll probably double that range. My guess (if they do a 14 kWh battery like the Outlander PHEV), the realistic electric range will be about 25 to 35 miles.

I will say this, I'm curious about how a track day would go with this car. My guess is that they will have to build in drive modes that will allow you to run the car hard for extended periods of time. Basically, the diesel (or gas motor) will probably always be running to keep the battery charged and apply power to the wheels, but finding the right balance will be challenging. Mitsubishi engineers have their work cut out for them. I'll say that what most drivers might find disconcerting is that, in sport mode, they might be braking hard into a corner as the engine continues to run 100% at WOT. Basically, you'll no longer be able to use the engine noise as one of your sensory inputs.

Oh, it won't be the same, but maybe in a good way. The AWD system is the biggest question mark for me, right now. Getting it right for daily driving will not be hard (relatively speaking), but getting it right for performance driving is going to be a herculean task. The front, especially, is going to be difficult to calibrate because, when the battery is depleted, it will literally have to apply power to the ground and provide power to the rear wheels at the same time. Now, if that happens infrequently enough and for short enough durations of time, the excess power requirements can be handled by the battery reserves, but that's going to be difficult to calibrate.

I'm starting to get giddy.

 

One thing to note Ladogaboy, if you are in a track setting, you can recover significant amounts of energy from the generators on the front wheels! On a Norma.l car, you lose that stopping energy to heat... On an electric motor, you can recover it!

 

I was at the dealership getting an oil change yesterday and my salesman comes by on his golf cart and shoots the **** and happens to tell me about the new Evo XI that he got some info on when he went to a Mitsubishi event not long ago. He claimed it is not going to be a diesel hybrid and that was a rumor. He told me there weren't any pictures.

 

Not sure how i feel about a hybrid setup :/

 

Good to know.

 

sticking by my evo8 gsr
but who knows, maybe ill buy the xi as a daily beater ;o

 

Oh, for sure. The braking on the car will be great, but there will still be some issues I can see in terms of transitioning from freewheeling to regenerative braking to powering the wheels. One thing I've come to count on, though, is Mitsubishi ingenuity.

 

Yeah, it will be interesting to see what they come up with. It really shouldn't be all that difficult. You need just need a permanent magnet motor, with an electromagnetic exciter on the generator. When you are freewheeling, the exciter can remain off, and when you are generating, you can modulate the field strength to determine how quickly you slow down. Motoring would just be proportionate to input voltage/current.

The only thing about electromagnetic braking is you need a secondary mechanical brake also in place as a fail safe.

 

I'm thinking more about the linkage with the diesel/gas engine. It's probably going to be a planetary gear of some sort, but how they mate it will be really important. The plug-in Prius has to activate its gas engine at 62 mph under all circumstances because of the way they linked the planetary gears, but the Volt never has to engage its gas engine because it is linked differently through the planetary gears.

The question will be the focus, which in the EVO's case is performance, so that will be the determining factor. Once the mechanical connections through the planetary gears are set, they can't really be adjusted... unless Mitsubishi comes up with some sort of clutch system.

 

Audi has a prototype diesel-electric-turbo hybrid...and I think it's a Quattro too...Mitsu better get rolling on the Evo or they technology from other companies could leapfrog them.

http://jalopnik.com/5946247/audis-se...ium=socialflow