The vehicle exhibited 75 miles per US gallon (3.1 L/a hundred km; Ninety mpg-imp) gasoline efficiency, and plans for it were marketed by Mom Earth Information. Earth signs (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn) symbolize practicality and a give attention to material targets. The Duo III used the 1.9-litre Turbocharged Direct Injection (TDI) diesel engine, which was coupled with a 21 kilowatts (29 PS; 28 bhp) electric motor. The automobile’s front roadwheels have been powered by a 2.3-litre 5-cylinder petrol engine with an output of one hundred kilowatts (136 PS; 134 bhp). Once again, this featured an electric motor, a 21.3 kilowatts (29.Zero PS; 28.6 bhp) three-section machine, driving the rear roadwheels. This car had a 9.4 kilowatts (12.8 PS; 12.6 bhp) Siemens electric motor which drove the rear roadwheels. Alfasud boxer engine (1,500cc, 95 HP) combined with a three-section asynchronous electric motor (16 HP, 6.1 kgm of torque) provided by Ansaldo of Genoa. The scheme proposed by Fiat is outlined as “parallel hybrid”: the petrol engine is linked to the differential with a 1:1 direct gear ratio, without gearbox, instead of the clutch there was an 8-inch torque converter followed by the transmission shaft on which the rotor of the electric motor is keyed, the latter powered by a 12-batteries pack.

The voltage controller to link the batteries, motor (a jet-engine starter motor), and DC generator was Arthurs’. The design was reasonable and already mass manufacturing-oriented, with minimal modifications to the usual body and a weight increase of only a hundred and fifty kg (110 for the batteries, 20 for the electric engine and 10 for power electronics). A sequence of designs, starting with the VK 3001 (P), the unsuccessful VK 4501 (P) heavy tank prototype (which grew to become the Elefant tank destroyer) and concluding with the heaviest armored preventing automobile ever prototyped, the Panzerkampfwagen Maus of almost 190 tonnes in weight, were just two examples of quite a lot of planned Wehrmacht “weapons programs” (together with the extremely-“electrified” subsystems on the Fw 191 bomber mission), crippled of their growth by the then-substandard provides of electrical-grade copper, required for the electric last drives on Porsche’s armored combating automobile powertrain designs. No manufacturing past the prototype was reported.

The Audi Duo III was launched in 1997, based on the Audi B5 A4 Avant, and was the only Duo to ever make it into series production. Two years later, Audi, unveiled the second duo technology, the Audi a hundred Duo – likewise based mostly on the Audi a hundred Avant quattro. In 1989, Audi produced its first iteration of the Audi Duo (the Audi C3 100 Avant Duo) experimental car, a plug-in parallel hybrid based on the Audi 100 Avant quattro. Until the discharge of the Audi Q7 Hybrid in 2008, the Duo was the one European hybrid ever put into manufacturing. In trade for the hybrid licenses, Ford licensed patents involving their European diesel engines to Toyota. Automotive hybrid expertise became widespread starting within the late 1990s. The first mass-produced hybrid car was the Toyota Prius, launched in Japan in 1997, and adopted by the Honda Perception, launched in 1999 in the United States and Japan. The AMC Amitron was first use of regenerative braking know-how within the U.S. The regenerative brake idea was additional developed within the early 1980s by David Arthurs, an electrical engineer, using off-the shelf components, navy surplus, and an Opel GT. This utterly battery powered city concept car was recharged by braking, thus growing the range of the automobile.

The regenerative braking system, a core design concept of most trendy production HEVs, was developed in 1967 for the American Motors Amitron and known as Energy Regeneration Brake by AMC. In 1982, Fritz Karl Preikschat invented an electric propulsion and braking system for cars primarily based on regenerative braking. In 2006, Normal Motors Saturn Division started to market a mild parallel hybrid, the 2007 Saturn Vue Green Line, which utilized GM’s Belted Alternator/Starter (BAS Hybrid) system combined with a 2.4-litre L4 engine and an FWD computerized transmission. The identical hybrid powertrain was additionally used to power the 2008 Saturn Aura Inexperienced Line and Malibu Hybrid models. During a demonstration at the Silverstone circuit in Britain, an F1 McLaren-Mercedes car pushed by David Coulthard gave a pair of Mercedes-Benz street vehicles a head begin of seventy seconds, and was in a position to beat the vehicles to the finish line from a standing begin, a distance of only 5.2 km (3.2 mi).