Originally Posted by Troopa-R
However, HCCI still doesn't sound like anything worth pursuing. Unless Honda has found a breakthrough to this, the difficulty of running a HCCI engine, along with having to "hybrid" it with Internal Combustion components when the car isn't running lean, and then pairing this system up to an electric motor just seems overly complex.
i'm not sure what you mean by "hybrid it with internal combustion components." this is still an internal combustion engine, for one thing, and what components would you have to "hybrid it" with? assuming they get the engine production ready, there's no reason why they can't pair it up with an electric motor for a hybrid setup. the way the fuel ignites is of no consequence to how the electric motor is engaged.
i doubt that anyone would make an announcement like this if they weren't confident that they could bring it to market. it's pretty clear that they're already pursuing this technology, as they're almost ready to demonstrate a prototype engine in action to journalists. it sounds like the project is pretty far along. as for octane limitations, if honda produces this engine, i'm sure they'll think about that first.