wishing for a hybrid ML

Diesel...

I think I'd rather have the diesel. No need to worry about the batteries or have the weight penalty.

RE: Diesel...

DelJ - 3/25/2005 5:59 PM

Hybrids also offer the advantage of very little wearing of the brakes as most of the braking is regenerative.

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I believe you are a bit mistaken here. The brakes wear down the same as a regular car, however the car utilises the potential energy from slowing down to build up the battery life.

There is one adavantage for diesels : they make so much noise that you never have to use the horn....

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As Wolfgang said, you may wish to experience an E320CDI sometime in the near future. I had one for a week for a review and it's so quiet inside that most of my family and friends had no idea that it was a diesel. From the outside, there is only some clatter when cold. After the warmup, it is quite and nowhere close to the noise that you hear from diesel pickup trucks. That is old old diesel technology.

Regenerative braking...

DelJ - 3/26/2005 8:28 AM

I am not mistaken! Hybrids work by recapturing the kinetic energy of the vehicle during much of the braking and stores this energy for subsequent propulsion. It is not necessary for the brake pads to be touching the rotors during regenerative braking, in fact this would undermine the advantage of a hybrid vehicle.

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It is true that regenerative braking does not require that the foot brake be depressed as it is active whenever the throttle pedal is released. However it is only used when coasting to a stop and does not slow down the vehicle that much at all. What simply happens is that the vehicle does not freewheel quite as readily as a regular non-hybrid vehicle. The motor which is ordinarily used to power the drive wheels simply reverses its function and becomes a generator. The brakes still do need to be used as usual as the motor/generator does not provide <i>that</i> much resistance.