Micro-hybrids set to take off in coming years
One of the biggest contributors to pollution and wasted fuel in urban areas is vehicles sitting in traffic jams with their engines idling. Hybrid vehicles address this problem by automatically shutting engines off when the vehicle is slowing or stopped and then restarting them only when they're needed for acceleration. Unfortunately, the cost premium to add a full hybrid system is still fairly high thanks to the required battery pack and the associated electric motor and transmission system. In Europe, where smaller, more efficient cars already represent a major part of the market, the fuel efficiency benefit of a full hybrid is more limited especially in places like France where diesel engines comprise almost eighty percent of the market. That's where micro-hybrid systems come in. For the relatively small initial cost of what is essentially a heavy duty alternator and 12V battery, Bosch claims that up to five percent improvement in fuel economy is possible. Perhaps more importantly, the emissions during idling are eliminated which can be really helpful with diesel engines. Of course anyone can manually start and stop their engine at a traffic light. However, regular starters and batteries are not designed to go through that many cycles in their lifetime and are likely to wear out prematurely.
[Source: Wards Auto World]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
why not the LS2/LS7? 12:35PM (12/18/2007)
Why is it genius when BMW does this and pathetic when GM did it two years ago?
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ohgreen.com 1:07PM (12/18/2007)
Interesting thought. I certainly like the scope because it is small, accessible, and affordable. The truly breakthrough products will effectively target the middle 80% of the market.
Here's the problem as I see it. I know an electrical engineer who is converting his Prius to a plug in. He claims the problem with converting a normal car to hybrid is that you need a computer controller to handle the switching and dual motor drive train. Although this one may just switch the engine on and off, however the obvious problem here is starting the engine before you can start the car in stop and go traffic, the annoyance of not being able to move would effectively kill your mental benefits of having this car.
Join the discussion on hybrid retrofits: http://wiserearth.org/group/hypercar
Intelligent ecogeeks on an open-source wiki-based site.
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Yggdrasilly 1:03PM (12/18/2007)
HURFF DURR HOLLOW HYBRID oh wait it's European HUGALHAHLAGHAGHLUGHAG...
(Note: this isn't a slam on Sam, but on people who make "better" the enemy of "good," of which there seem to be a lot on AutoBlog Green)
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Karkus 1:58PM (12/18/2007)
Ohgreen,
If these so-called-hybrids were actually hybrids, this would be an issue. However, they don't use the electric motor to propel the car, so these things are really NOT hybrids. (and I would appreciate ABG recognizing this fact and not spreading this mislabeling trend).
Having said that, I agree that these types of non-idling cars should become the norm. There's not much too it and it doesn't cost much.
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Mike 2:59PM (12/18/2007)
"If these so-called-hybrids were actually hybrids, this would be an issue. However, they don't use the electric motor to propel the car, so these things are really NOT hybrids."
According to the mild hybrid (Vue) presentations that GM has been giving the auto industry over the last few years, the mild hybrid system does indeed propel the vehicle under electric only power. Due to the limitations of the electric motor and the belt system its only for the first few MPH at initial take off. So by your definition calling these mild hybrid systems would seem to be correct.
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Auto IT 4:26PM (12/18/2007)
Sam’s pictured a BMW 1-Series, and has somewhat oversimplified what BMW’s EfficientDynamics system does to cut fuel consumption. It’s about switching on and off everything that doesn’t need to be running continuously, not just the engine. So, for example, the power steering is electric – which works on demand, saving most of the energy otherwise used by a hydraulic system. The air con is disconnected entirely when not in use, and the alternator engages only when the battery actually needs charging, or when engine braking, so it acts as a regenerative brake. The start-stop system cuts the engine only when the car is in neutral and stationary. Depressing the clutch to select a gear automatically starts the engine, without driver intervention.
I don’t know when GM started mucking about with start-stop, but VW had the system on the market in 1985, with the Polo Formel E. So there’s quite a bit of history in Europe, even if the Formel E was a sales clunker.
Doesn’t matter how clever all this stuff is, though, Mike’s right. We shouldn’t call them hybrids.
I wrote a bit about the background to this in August:
http://www.auto-it.co.uk/2007/08/watch-for-quiet-ones.html
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Dad 10:01PM (12/19/2007)
"micro-hybrid systems come in. For the relatively small initial cost of what is essentially a heavy duty alternator and 12V battery, Bosch claims that up to five percent improvement in fuel economy is possible. Perhaps more importantly, the emissions during idling are eliminated which can be really helpful with diesel engines. "
Gee, another GM idea and we get all excited.
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tomW 1:03AM (12/20/2007)
A lot of people here automatically discount anything that doesn't seem like the perfect solution to them, but this is a relatively simple way to decrease a complete WASTE of fuel. This is a system that is very viable, cheap, and completely worth buying for anyone who does decent amount of city driving. I think such systems should be (at least) optional on all cars, so those of us who drive in cities a lot can help the environment and save money!
The beauty of this system is that you get 5% fuel economy improvement (perhaps more if you do lots of city driving) with minimal investment. If made in large quantities, this system would be LESS than $500 for sure (maybe $300). That's cheap enough that car companies could make it standard on all their cars, and nobody would even notice a price increase. Meanwhile, in most cars the fuel savings would pay back the system in a couple of years, not to mention the benefit to the environment. Again, the benefit seems small, but if implemented on all cars, you'd see as much as 5% reduction on our country's TOTAL gasoline usage--that's a lot of gasoline. And if you care about energy security issue, that would translate into 10% reduction in the amount of imported crude. Again, sizable gains country-wide from a small improvement made to all cars (because only ~50% of crude used is imported).
So...sure full hybrids are great, but if used only in small quantities may not change the overall GHG emissions / oil security issue. It's important to find ways to reduce consumption of A LARGE NUMBER of vehicles, any way we can
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