Hacking the Hybrid Vehicle

Hacking the Hybrid Vehicle By John Gartner
Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/autotech/0,2554,69519,00.html

02:00 AM Nov. 16, 2005 PT

Engineers are developing adapter kits for hybrid vehicles that will
increase their efficiency to 100 miles per gallon by powering them
solely on electricity during short trips.

Today's hybrid vehicles use electricity stored in batteries to assist
the gasoline engine in acceleration and to completely power the
vehicle while idling or at steady low speeds (generally less than 25
mph). Vehicles such as the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid and Ford
Escape Hybrid include drive-train management systems that
automatically decide when to use the batteries or internal-combustion
engine.

Enter CalCars and EDrive, organizations developing modification kits
that enable the Toyota Prius to be recharged from the grid. And a new
group of automotive component suppliers, the Advanced Hybrid Vehicle
Development Consortium, hopes to develop technology that enables
hybrids to run without help from the gasoline engine for up to 50 miles.

Referring to "plug-in" hybrids, David West, vice president of
marketing for consortium co-founder Raser Technologies, said that "80
percent of cars would be able to drive five days per week without
using their combustion engines." West said consumers would save money
since the equivalent of one gallon of gasoline costs just 60 cents in
electric power.

Consumers have rejected plug-in alternative vehicles in the past. But
with gas prices hitting record highs, members of the consortium
believe the timing is right to try again with new and improved
technology.

The consortium will develop a prototype hybrid vehicle within a year
that includes more-powerful electric motors, longer-lasting batteries
and ultracapacitors that can store electricity used for acceleration,
West said. The prototype will cost about as much to build as today's
hybrids, because some components such as the flywheel will be
eliminated. Not only will the vehicle get more than 100 mpg, but
consumers will save even more by tapping into the grid.

The group hopes to license the hybrid technology to auto companies
that have yet to produce hybrids, which would "enable other
automakers to jump in the game without having to do 15 years of
(research and development)," West said. Other companies participating
in the group include lithium-ion battery manufacturers Electrovaya
and Enax, utility Pacific Gas and Electric and Maxwell Technologies,
a company that wants to introduce its ultracapacitor technology into
hybrid vehicles.

Richard Smith, Maxwell's executive vice president, said
ultracapacitors -- which store energy by separating negative and
positive charges along plates -- should eventually be included in all
hybrids because they are 10 times more powerful than batteries at
providing the bursts of energy needed to accelerate a vehicle.
Ultracapacitors are 98 percent efficient when receiving energy from
the regenerative braking systems used in hybrids, while batteries are
60 just percent efficient, according to Smith.

But ultracapacitors aren't nearly as efficient at storing energy, so
cars traveling more than a few miles will need batteries as well,
Smith said. Ultracapacitors haven't been practical until recent
improvements were made in the technology.

Earlier this year, BMW introduced the X3 EfficientDynamics concept
car, and students at Brigham Young University developed an electric
drag racer, both powered by ultracapacitors.

Perry Carter, an associate professor at BYU who worked with students
on the vehicle, said ultracapacitor technology is promising but not
yet practical -- the drag racer used $22,000 worth of ultracapacitors
for a 14-second run on a track.

The original Toyota Prius concept car included ultracapacitors,
according Dave Hermance, Toyota's executive engineer for advanced
technology vehicles, but they didn't make it into the production
vehicle because of their cost and size. But those were previous-
generation technologies, and Smith said the price of new
ultracapacitors is now on par with batteries.

Hermance is still not convinced. In general, he said, ultracapacitors
are better suited to large vehicles like trucks or buses that stop
and start frequently, because their heavy loads generate a lot of
energy when braking.

Plug-in hybrids "are not viable with today's battery technology,"
Hermance said. He said the Prius' power-management system keeps the
batteries charged at 60 percent, plus or minus 15 percent to extend
their life. Running solely on electricity would discharge the
batteries beyond their optimal range and burn them out after
approximately 2,500 cycles, or about six years of use, he said.

Selling plug-in hybrids will also cause confusion with consumers and
could hurt sales, Hermance said. Most people don't want the
responsibility of recharging batteries every day. Plus, he said,
manufacturers spent years convincing consumers that hybrids were not
like the electric vehicles that failed to gain commercial acceptance.

But Raser Technologies' West said powering a vehicle with electricity
will cost about a quarter the price of using gasoline, which he
believes offsets any inconvenience from having to charge the vehicle
overnight.

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