ferrari is deadly serious about introducing this technology to its road cars

It was back in September 2007 that we discovered Ferrari was looking into developing a hybrid powertrain for its road cars, and we speculated that it might appear around 2012. Well, Ferrari has just taken the idea a step closer to reality by revealing a hybrid 599 at the 2010 Geneva show.

The show car features a system dubbed HY-KERS by Ferrari. It offers the driver the possibility of 100 per cent electric propulsion, or an extra 100bhp-plus boost of electric power to supplement the V12 engine’s conventional power under full acceleration.

Ferrari is deadly serious about introducing this technology to its road cars, having transferred the technical department that originally worked on KERS for the 2009 F1 car over to the road car division.

Central to the technology is the fitment to the 599 of a new seven-speed, dual-clutch transmission. This allows a compact, three-phase, high-voltage motor (weighing 40kg and fixed to the side of the gearbox) to send its power directly to the transmission by using one of the clutches to engage and disengage the electric motor as necessary.

Under braking, this electric motor can also act as a generator by converting the negative torque produced under braking into electricity, which is used to charge the lithium-ion batteries positioned below the floorpan of the car, inside the aerodynamic underbody.

When running in electric-only mode, the power steering, servo brakes and air-conditioning compressor are powered by another electric motor, mounted on the V12 engine itself.

What’s really clever about Ferrari’s hybrid installation is that it has minimised the additional weight penalty by doing away with the conventional starter motor and the heavy, 12v lead battery.

Ferrari’s stated aim was that its hybrid system had to be capable of producing at least one extra bhp for each kilogram increase in weight. It hasn’t released the total weight gain of the HY-KERS system on the 599, but it says that since the electric motor produces over 100bhp, it meets this engineering objective.

Ferrari has had the technology up and running for a while. CEO Amedeo Felisa was recently quoted as saying that experimental, hybrid ‘mules’ had been running for over a year now and they were achieving 25 per cent savings in fuel consumption when compared with non-hybrid examples in normal road conditions.

Felisa added that he felt the technology was still some way off being production-ready for road cars but hoped it would be on sale by 2015. He said the aim was that HY-KERS should be capable of being fitted to every Ferrari in the range, but the California was likely to be the first Ferrari model to appear with the new technology.

So that’s all clear, except that evo has been tipped off that the Enzo replacement, due in 2012, is also going to feature this HY-KERS technology – possibly including a ‘Boost’ button to release stored energy during acceleration. Who said hybrids were boring?