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Kinetic energy storage to be developed for road cars
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12/06/2008
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A project has been announced to develop flywheel kinetic energy storage systems for premium segment road cars, in a consortium headed up by Jaguar and containing Flybrid Systems, Ford, Prodrive, Ricardo, Torotrak and Xtrac.
The consortium is supported by the Technology Strategy Board, which recently announced funding of £23 million for 16 innovative low carbon vehicle development projects.
“We are very excited about being part of a consortium that has successfully secured funding to undertake one of the major UK low carbon vehicle programmes,” said Peter Digby, managing director of Xtrac. “Taking a technology that has been developed for motorsport and implementing it for road vehicles in order to improve fuel economy and reduce carbon emissions so quickly after the emergence of the base technology shows how rapidly the UK motorsport industry can react. It is no surprise that a number of our consortium members are successful motorsport engineering companies who have taken up the challenge.”
The energy recovery rate and storage requirements of a flywheel for a road car could be considerably less than that required in F1 where the energy that can be recovered from 5g braking is significant. Road cars could store energy in the flywheel directly from the engine, which is not currently permissible under F1 regulations. Road driving conditions also vary from the stop-start conditions experienced in a town environment to constant speed cruising found on motorways.
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Author
Tom Shelley
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