I'm writing software now for a new Ford car, a hybrid electric. Pretty major step forward. To take this as an example...

The transaxle (basically gearbox plus 2 electric motors) comes off the Toyota Prius, with some modifications. The engine is a modified 4-cylinder engine using the Atkinson Cycle, which makes it more efficient. The car itself is pretty much a standard Ford Escape, with all the extras bolted on. So the hardware isn't too different, it's the software that's the killer

They started development of this as a prototype 2 years ago. We should have pretty much finished the software by the end of this year. It'll take them 18 months to calibrate it. Fleets will get this in late-2004, and the general public will finally get to buy them in early-2005.

Does that give you an example of the timeframes in really new stuff?

If there's only a minor change to the platform, like using a 3l V6 instead of a 2.8l V6, the software shouldn't have to change, so that saves a lot of time. But there's still all the work to do with calibration to get the engine running right.

Graham.