'VW had hybrid tech back in 1979'
http://ecomento.com/2015/03/20/koenigsegg-regera-hybrid-ev-powertrain/ A closer look at the Koenigsegg Regera hybrid powertrain (w/images) March 20, 2015 | [image http://cdn.ecomento.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Koenigsegg-Regera-electric-drive-train.jpg Koenigsegg-Regera-electric-drive-train ] The Koenigsegg Regera fits the definition of a supercar. With 1500 horsepower and more than 2000 lb-ft of torque, it can blast a whole in the air faster than any Ferrari, McLaren, Porsche or Tesla. It’s a plug in hybrid, but its powertrain operates differently – underneath, this is no Prius. The basics of the system are known. There is a twin turbo V8 gasoline engine with 1100 horsepower. Then there are three electric motors, one 270 hp motor for rear wheel and another affixed to the front of the engine for a total of 700 electric horsepower. Did you notice that 1100 and 700 add up to more than the 1500 hp Koenigsegg claims for this car? If so, you now have a clue about what makes this powertrain different than all other cars. The gasoline engine and its electric motor are connected directly to the rear wheels via a viscous clutch. The Regera always moves off from rest under electric power alone; the gasoline engine doesn’t kick in until around 20 mph. Electric motors generate their maximum torque at 0 rpm. A gasoline engine, particularly a turbocharged one, doesn’t generate much torque until its builds revs. So the beauty of the Regera powertrain is that it uses the electric motors to do what they do best and the gasoline engine to do what it does best. The two don’t hit their horsepower peaks at the same time, which is why the total power output is “only” 1500 horses. The Regera is unique in another way, too. When connected by the clutch, the gasoline engine and its electric motor are coupled directly to the rear axle without any transmission in between. Koenigsegg’s development chief, Jon Gunner, says eliminating the transmission reduces powertrain losses by 50%. The gasoline engine is only turning about 600 rpm when it is first switched on and doesn’t reach its full revs until the car is traveling an astounding 255 mph. To minimize vibration at such low starting revs, special engine mounts are designed to be very soft at low engine speed and then stiffen as revs rise. It feeds its power directly to the rear wheels through a differential with a final drive ratio of 2.85:1. Want to know something else unique about the Koenigsegg Regera? That oval opening in the rear is an outlet for the air that cools the 9.34 kWh battery pack. The engine exhaust actually exits through those two vertical fins on the rear deck lid. Company owner Christian von Koenigsegg says the fins double the sound of the exhaust. “This is very good in a car where you can only reach your top rpm at 410 kph. So you have to live on the guttural roar and the resonance from the exhaust to be thrilled by the engine,” he says. “It just feels like you have an engine with 20 liters.” That’s a feeling I would like to have someday! [© ecomento.com] ... http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1097286_koenigsegg-regera-supercar-a-new-configuration-for-plug-in-hybrids Koenigsegg Regera Supercar: A New Configuration For Plug-In-Hybrids [20150317] http://jalopnik.com/vw-could-have-made-a-hybrid-beetle-over-30-years-ago-1692235126 VW Could Have Made A Hybrid Beetle Over 30 Years Ago 3/20/15 Jason Torchinsky [images http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/k9icjxz2nxsatff3uu2b.jpg http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/ue1pbygvd2jqvotztzlr.jpg http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/frxrtuw0dvyedbjfuolq.jpg ] I've always maintained, loudly, and with a lot of dramatic hand motions, that Jalopnik readers are the best readers of anything, anywhere. That goes for bibles and copies of The Utne Reader, too. They're great because they sometimes send me books with amazing information, like how VW had hybrid tech back in 1979. The book in question is called The Complete Book of Electric Vehicles by the fantastically-named Sheldon Shacket, and was sent to me in a package filled with a bunch of other amazing old magazines by Evan Morrison, one of our readers. Thanks, Evan! The book is full of fascinating stuff, but what I want to talk about here is something I've never encountered before in all my obsessive consuming of air-cooled-era Volkswagenery. It's a prototype Volkswagen Hybrid-Electric City Taxi, built around a modified VW Type II microbus. The book is from 1979, so this must have existed at least some time prior to that. The taxi-fied bus is interesting in itself — VW didn't just slap a taximeter and some illuminated TAXI signs on a yellow bus, they added an automatic, electrically-operated sliding door, four big, comfy-looking seats, and a bulletproof (!) driver/passenger dividing bulkhead. I guess we forget how perpetually pissed and violent everyone was in the '70s. But that's not the amazing part. The amazing part is the drivetrain. It uses the standard, upright-fan VW 1600cc air-cooled flat-four. That same 50HP engine that was used in the Beetle, Karmann-Ghia, Thing, and all those variants. The picture shows the Type I engine with its tall fan, and not the flatter Type III or Type IV engines, which is interesting, since VW buses of that era would have used the Type IV engine. Along with this standard VW engine is a somewhat different-looking transaxle. The difference is that the transaxle has an input shaft coming from a Bosch DC shunt electric motor. The motor can be powered either by 11 storage batteries to drive the car, or can be run as a generator by the gas engine to recharge the batteries. That all sounds very familiar in concept now because it's essentially how all those Priuses and other hybrids work. And VW had a working version of this back in 1979? Incredibly, I have not been able to find any information on the internet about the 1970s VW hybrid system, aside from direct references to this book. I'm fascinated, though. The use of the regular Type I (Beetle) engine suggest that this could have been installed into a Beetle! I mean, sure, a Beetle that would likely have given up nearly all its luggage space to house those eleven batteries, but still! What if VW had continued down this road? A Hybrid Beetle could have possibly competed better with the more modern cars coming from Japan, and would have been ahead of the emissions requirements that were part of the reason it eventually left the US market. Of course, those heavy batteries are still a huge factor. Even the stats listed for the bus aren't too impressive — a top speed of about 65, and taking a solid 30 seconds to get to 60, while making 20 MPG doesn't sound that compelling — until you remember this is in the Taxi/bus body with the heavy electric door system, and all those seats and bulletproof glass walls. With that in mind, 20 MPG is actually pretty damn good, especially when compared with other taxis, like the Checker, of that era. I wonder how a version of this, installed in a Super Beetle, could have done? Let's say the battery allotment was dropped to an amount that just filled the rear luggage well, leaving the Super Beetle's decent-sized trunk open, so it could at least compete with cars that had luggage space. Could such a Hybrid Beetle have gotten 40 MPG or so? Even with batteries, I bet the car would still have weighed around 2500 lbs. Would anyone have cared? It's an interesting thought, and I wonder what happened to this experimental hybrid bus and the whole air-cooled hybrid program. I wonder if there's some old German guy who gets a pang of regret in his gut every time he sees a Prius hum by? It's important to realize there's still so much not on the internet. I love old books. [© jalopnik.com] ... https://google.com/search?q=Complete+Book+Electric+Vehicles+Shacket The Complete Book of Electric Vehicles by Sheldon Shacket For EVLN posts use: http://evdl.org/evln/ http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/template/NamlServlet.jtp?macro=search_page&node=413529&query=subject%3Aevln+NOT+subject%3Are&days=0&sort=date {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Koenigsegg-Regera-supercar-s-pih-powertrain-tp4674371.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
