Why is it worth converting a conventional car into
a hybrid solar vehicle
The proposed hybridizing equipment
for conventional cars will impact both fuel consumption and related
CO2 emissions. Moreover, it will have a significant impact also
from an economical point of view, as explained in the following:
-
it is worldwide accepted within
the industrial and academic research communities that the most
promising technology for a real, short-term and significant
reduction of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions is represented
by hybrid electric vehicles;
-
the integration of hybrid vehicles
with the solar energy, through on-board photovoltaic panels,
can provide an important contribution to reducing both fuel
consumption and emissions: during sunny days, photovoltaic energy
can contribute up to 30-40% of the overall energy requested
for vehicle traction, when vehicles are used for approximately
one or two hours per day in urban areas (some recent statistics
confirm that the majority of car users do not drive for longer
time);
-
despite their unambiguous benefits
from both environmental and energetic point of views, hybrid
vehicles, though largely present in the international market,
do not have yet gained sufficient appealing for the customers,
thus this technology has not yet been able to produce a significant
impact on fuel consumption and CO2 emission reduction; hybrid
solar vehicles are currently produced only as prototypes (the
authors themselves developed a prototype of such vehicle type
within an EU-funded project: www.dimec.unisa.it/Leonardo) and
their real impact into the market can be fairly evaluated only
on a medium-term time;
-
several recent studies on Mild-Hybrid
show that, by means of a suitable design, such vehicles can
provide energetic efficiency comparable with those obtainable
with full-hybrid solutions (e.g. Toyota Prius); the addition
of a photovoltaic panel of advanced features may result in even
better results, in particular for cars moving in urban areas
and for short-distance transfers;
-
photovoltaic costs are constantly
decreasing, whereas, thanks to the continuous research efforts,
electrical efficiencies are growing;
-
energy density, costs and size
of batteries are under continuous improvement, due to the key
role played by such devices in both hybrid and electric vehicles;
-
the market of in-wheel motors
is currently growing thanks to the technological tie with hybrid
as well as special vehicles;
-
the possibility to have as set
of equipments, and in perspective also an after-market kit,
able to transform a traditional vehicle into a mild-solar-hybrid
will ensure a relevant impact on the general energetic consumption,
because of the large number of cars present on that segment;
moreover such result can be achieved without introducing expensive
modifications on the cars production lines and without the substitutions
of cars already circulating on the roads, the latter aspect
being of particular relevance with respect to the current worldwide
economical crisis.
Although the main benefits are related to the energetic/environmental
field, the following further improvements could reasonably be attained
through car hybridization:
- by using the fast dynamic start-up of the electric
motors, it is possible to obtain good acceleration performance
for the vehicle, also in the urban traffic;
- the reliability of the vehicle is increased in
different scenarios, e.g. in the presence of faults of one of
the propulsion sources and for possible fuel exhaustion;
- opportunity of collecting data to monitor real-world
performance of engine and vehicle, thus enabling the adoption
of predictive maintenance strategies.
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