The first glimpse at the Ferrari stand will have been an unusual one for most, next to a red Ferrari 458 Italia, an elegant Grigio Ingrid livery of the Ferrari California, the Ferrari 599 HGTE’s Rosso Fuoco and the Grigio Ferro Met of the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, there was also a Ferrari Verde.
The Ferrari 599 HY-KERS immediately became the start of the motorshow, not only because of its colour, but mainly because of the originality of its solutions.
One horsepower per kilo was the Ferrari hybrid rule, a rule the Ferrari 599 HY-KERShybrid abided by. In other words, whatever any hybrid system costs in weight is offset by a corresponding power upgrade.
The Ferrari 599 HY-KERS hybrid is not only green, fast but most of all the 599 is impressive technically. Accordingly to one of Ferrari’s chef engineers, if the hybrid was to be put on sale today it would double the standard 599’s price. Cutting edge to the extreme.
Batteries are small (20mm thick) and highly efficient lithium-ion things lying flat on the undertray. The motor is neatly integrated with the dual-clutch transmission at the back of the car. It is controlled by a neat electronics module located beneath the boot floor, whilst ensuring not an inch of boot space has been lost. In fact there's more, because the standard 12-volt battery has been taken out of the boot and its function replaced by the module.
The hybrid Ferrari 599 has regenerative braking and stop-start, and the net result is a 36 % improvement in fuel consumption (and roughly the same in emissions) over the standard V12. And an 80kg weight gain is neatly offset by an 80bhp upgrade in power via the electric motor.
Is this the future of Ferrari?
