If you don't charge it externally, you will be carrying a heavy battery around, but it only provides limited
electrical assistance from brake regeneration.
When it comes to superb handling, no amount
of electrical assistance masquerading as a «Sport Mode» can equal the driving fun provided by a truly well - engineered steering system.
It certainly isn't a direct rival - the 4.0 - litre V8 is devoid
of electrical assistance - but harbours some of the P1 essence.
Toyota's advantage will start to diminish as more and more car makers turn to petrol engines
with electrical assistance, but for now Toyota's hybrid obsession puts them in an enviable position.
Schiff thinks that some of these regulatory mechanisms may actually prevent the damaged brain from restarting itself, and that pharmaceutical or
electrical assistance can sometimes get it over that hurdle.
We witness Hercules» rise from birth (with
some electrical assistance from his father Zeus) to his position as the powerful leader of armies and prisoner to his sweetheart, Princess Hebe (what a name!)
The basic rack and
its electrical assistance is shared with the 3 - series, but the firmer front end and revised geometry gives it more positive responses and a better sense of what the front wheels are doing.
The 599 - hp V8 engine has the same astonishing freeness of a Carrera GT's V - 10, but while your ears tell you the car should need revs to really fly,
the electrical assistance means you've got massive and instant torque.
If the engine was somewhat old school with no forced induction or
electrical assistance to get in the way then the rest of the car was bang up to date with a carbonfibre body, F1 - style electro - hydraulic transmission with steering wheel - mounted shift lights and carbon ceramic brakes.
The weight of the battery pack and the motor adds another 150 kg to the mass of the not - exactly - svelte 535i, and although
the electrical assistance effectively cancels out the increase in weight, it doesn't add any extra performance — BMW claims identical performance figures for both models.
Like all in its competitor set, the Elantra SR Turbo drives the front wheels and steers with «more direct»
electrical assistance.
But does that unbeatable off - road USP still hold good when Land Rover has gone down the plug - in hybrid route, using a four - cylinder engine and
electrical assistance to deliver its box of four - wheel tricks in the Range Rover Sport PHEV?
Speaking of hybridization,
the electrical assistance courtesy of Toyota's HSD system resulted in a whopping 11 mile - per - gallon bump in observed economy compared with the V6 model I drove a year ago.
The Chiron will continue sourcing power from an 8.0 - liter W16 engine, which could feature some form of
electrical assistance.