1st Generation INSIGHT Technology Information; Integrated Motor Assist

With all the talk about the 2010 Honda Insight, I figured it be fitting to pay tribute to the original Honda Insight and the technology that helped pioneer Honda's Hybrid dreams. So once in awhile when news is slow, I'll feature a different component.
Integrated Motor Assist System

The heart of the hybrid system is Honda’s innovative Integrated Motor Assist (IMA), which couples a compact 1.0 liter, 3-cylinder gasoline engine and an ultra-thin electric motor for outstanding efficiency.

The Insight’s Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) system owes much of its remarkable performance to the application of numerous technologies developed by Honda over the past four decades. They include lean-burn combustion, low-emission engines, variable valve timing, high-efficiency electric motors, regenerative braking, nickel-metal hydride battery technology and microprocessor control.

In the IMA system, Honda engineers have optimized the performance of each of these technologies to create an efficient, lightweight and compact hybrid drive system that people can easily use and that does not require any changes in lifestyle.

Primary motive power for the Insight is provided by the system’s 1.0 liter, 12-valve, 3-cylinder, VTEC-E gasoline engine. Although the engine alone provides sufficient driving performance, when additional power is required, such as initial acceleration from a stop, passing and hill climbing, a permanent-magnet electric motor mounted between the engine and transmission provides power assist.

Since the electric motor is used only for power assistance and not for primary motive power, it too can be made smaller and lighter relative to the full-size traction motors in other hybrid systems.

Power to charge the Insight’s battery pack is generated mostly by recapturing energy from the forward momentum of the vehicle, rather than from the gasoline engine. When the Insight is braking or decelerating while in any gear, the assist motor is electrically reconfigured to operate as a generator, converting forward momentum into electrical energy.

If the charge state of the IMA battery is low, the motor/generator will charge the battery pack via engine power as the Insight cruises. The batteries are located under the cargo compartment floor, along with the IMA system’s Power Control Unit (PCU).

The IMA electric motor also functions as a high-rpm starter motor.

Source;
Honda Canada