By no later than the year 2005, the world will begin to see the first
production versions of affordable electric and hybrid electric
vehicles. Prior to this high volume market production, companies will
have introduced hybrid electric mass-transit vehicles such as city
buses, trains and trolley systems. Application of the high-power
super-capacitors will be dictated by the size of the vehicle. Transit
busses may need a couple of million joules of stored energy at 300
volts. A small car may only need tens of thousand of joules at 150
volts. The super-capacitor in this application will be optimized for
many charge and discharge cycles so that once installed, the automotive
super-capacitor will never need to be replaced. The super-capacitor has
the opportunity to play a major role in electric, hybrid-electric and
fuel cell based automobiles. The simplicity of the super-capacitor
makes it the most likely technology to fill the needs of automakers.
All that is required is a close working relationship with the end user
to make sure that our industry is pursuing the correct targets. The
chart below shows market projections for some of the large unit
applications[8].
HIGH POWER APPLICATION EXAMPLES (48v, 150F)
| |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
HYBRID BUS
HYBRID / EV
ISAD
|
8400
25000
200000
|
112000
100000
1000000
|
260000
600000
1600000
|
442000
1200000
2560000
|
751000
10000000
4096000
|
1277380
20000000
6553600
|
CONCLUSION
Bill Powers, vice-president of research at Ford Motor Company, reveals
what he thinks the future holds for the vehicles: ". The most
cost-effective and efficient road to a greener world is through the
gradual electrification of vehicles. That is electrification as in
adding more electrics, rather than switching to an all electric
powertrain. I don't think it's a question of whether or not we will
have hybrids. I think the question is how fast do we electrify the
vehicle?" The neat thing about ICEs is that they carry their own energy
source- that is the reason why you will see ICEs with electric motors
in Ford products for some time to come".
"While some people call that a revolutionary hybrid, I call it an
evolutionary hybrid. Our goal is to try and find ways to recover energy
on board a vehicle and so save fuel and lower emissions- we can do that
via greater electrification".
" If you look at the Ford approach versus the approach of other
companies, you'll see that we don't have a lot of faith in battery
technology from an affordability and robustness point of view. " "The
biggest thing holding back the electrification of the vehicle is the
battery. To make many of the new (eco-friendly) concepts work, I've got
to make the battery bigger and more robust, and that is still a tough
job to do," explained Powers [7].
In turn, we at Tavrima conclude that supercapacitors will continue
playing important role in the evolution and electrification of the
Light, Medium and Heavy vehicles.
References.
[1] "EvoBus" Mercedes-Benz Omnibusse prop. data
[2] "Future Car" University of California, Davis, College of Engineering.
[3] "From diesel drive to fuel cell." Horst Mock, EvoBus, Germany.
[4] "Baseline Testing of the Hybrid Electric Transit Bus". NASA Technical Memorandum 1999.
Jeffrey Brown, Dennis Eichenberg, William Thompson.
[5] "Optimal Hybrid Electric Power Train for Heavy Vehicles and Buses" Frank Lev, Tavrima Ltd.
[6] "Energy storage cost considerations in the design of HEV" SAE May
26, 1999. Andrew Burke, Institute of Transportation Studies, University
of California, Davis.
[7] "Topping the Bill" Graham Johnson-interview with Bill Powers, VP R&D FORD, Engine Technology International.
[8] "Beyond the Technology; Focusing on Market Demand" Jim Nickerson
presented on the 9-th International Seminar on Double Layer Capacitors
and Similar Energy Storage Devices at Deerfield Beach, Florida on
December 1999.
[9] "The Space Bus-Performance, major Components, and Implications for
Engineered Hybrid Drive Systems for Medium and Heavy Hybrid Vehicles".
SAE Nov 15-17, 1999. Anthony J. Palumbo, Electric Vehicle institute,
Bowling Green State
[10] "Electrochemical Capacitors for Hybrid Vehicles" John R. Miller JME, Inc.
