Electrification Boost for Downsized Gasoline Engine
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electrification boost for downsized gasoline engine Intelligent electrification has the potential to push the limits of gasoline engine downsizing. This is demonstrated by a project vehicle, developed within the Hyboost research programme, which was led by Ricardo in partnership with Ford, Controlled Power Technologies, Valeo, and others. The Hyboost car is fitted with electrical systems to achieve radical engine downsizing. An electric supercharger and ultra-capacitor energy storage pack show the potential of available efficiency improving technologies.
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AuTHoRs
Jason King is Chief engineer Gasoline engines and Hyboost at Ricardo in shoreham-by-sea (Great Britain).
anDrew Fraser is Manager Gasoline Powertrain Development at Ford in Dunton (Great Britain).
guy Morris is Director engineering and Chief Technical officer of Controlled Power Technologies in Laindon (Great Britain).
Downsizing anD Micro HybriD Functionality
The global pressure to improve fuel economy is driving radical innovation in engine technology. The next threshold in Europe, for instance, is a fleet average CO2 emission level of ≤130 g/km that has to be met by 2018 and which will be followed by even tougher targets. The automotive industry faces this imminent challenge in a situation where a lot of improvement has already been achieved within the previous voluntary agreement dating from 1998. Two technology paths have strongly contributed to the current level of achievement. One is the continuing optimisation of the internal combustion (IC) engine’s thermodynamic efficiency over a broad area of operation, particularly at light loads representative of urban and city driving. Within the many approaches to optimisation, turbocharging and downsizing, which is often combined with direct injection (DI), stands out as the single most important strategy. The second big contributor to better fuel efficiency includes more fundamental changes to powertrain architecture through hybridisation, employing electric energy to support the IC engine and harvesting
kinetic energy through regenerative braking. Ultimately electrification can be taken to the level of a vehicle with all-electric powertrain. Currently the downsized turbocharged diesel engine is usually seen as the benchmark of pure combustion engine efficiency while the full hybrid powertrain sets the standard for alternative powertrain efficiency. However, both technologies face limitations which slow down their adoption in the world’s markets. Both the diesel engine and the hybrid powertrain add cost to the vehicle while the latter also adds substantial weight. In market terms, the cost alone is enough to limit the potential benefit of dieselisation and full-hybridisation on a global scale. As the “low-hanging” fruit of combustion engine optimisation have already been harvested, it gets increasingly difficult to not only support the ongoing improvement process but to actually speed it up. Considering the cost of copper, lithium-ion battery technology, high power semi-c
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