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2008 Issues Archive
30 January 2008
Print Page
Boost for diesel hybrids
Connaught Engineering is to retrofit Tesco delivery vans with diesel hybrid technology.
The move follows the success of a small-scale trial. Now 352 Tesco home delivery Ford Transit vans will be fitted with the Connaught Hybrid+ system.
The compact bolt-on device attaches to the front of a conventional diesel engine with the crankshaft driving an 8.7kW motor. The motor is driven through a constantly variable transmission and acts as a power assist to the vehicle.
The company said: “The serious advantage over other hybrid systems is that the energy generated is stored in supercapacitors instead of lugging around 350kg of highly environmentally unfriendly batteries.”
The Hybrid+ is available for 2.2- and 2.4-litre Ford Transit vans with systems for Mercedes Sprinter vans and General Motors vans currently being developed.
The system is mounted under the bonnet without any change to the engine architecture. The supercapacitors are a single box, the size of a medium-sized battery, mounted under the chassis. Due to its bolt-in and go nature, the system does not affect any original manufacturer warranty and takes between three and four hours to fit.
Connaught said: “A diesel engine’s worst emissions are when you start them up, so it’s not advantageous to keep turning them off and on at the lights, for example, like a petrol hybrid engine.
“In this, you get maximum torque from the electric motor at zero revs. So as you pull away the motor kicks in through a clutch and assists the diesel engine. When it gets to a crossover point which is probably 3,000rpm then the motor stops assisting and you are back with the diesel.”
Connaught said the Hybrid+ would give a 25% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and fuel economy and will pay for itself within 75,000 miles.
© PE Publishing, 30 January 2008
