Electrifying small cars for short-haul use is easy. But if the auto industry wants to convince buyers of electric power's efficacy as a replacement for internal combustion, it has to come up with something bigger than a matchbox. To address what is one of the biggest barriers facing EV acceptance, partners in Britain's Low Carbon Vehicle Technology Project (LCVTP) have set to work on a large vehicle test-bed for hybrid and EV technologies.
With virtually all industry efforts to date focused on tiny city cars as the natural platform for all-electric technologies, the news represents an inevitable progression upwards with the likelihood that batteries and powertrains will grow in power and efficiency to accommodate larger vehicles.
All the inhibitors for the acceptance of city cars with electric power – real-world, day-to-day viability, cost and range anxiety – are magnified for the larger C-D segment. But once they're addressed, the advent of a larger vehicle platform will make electric power much more viable for most buyers.
Announced in February 2010, the multimillion-dollar LCVTP includes seven industry and research partners: Jaguar Land Rover and its Indian owner, Tata Motors; powertrain and motor sport engineering specialists Zytek, Ricardo and MIRA along with WMG , the commercial engineering and research arm shared by the University of Warwick and Coventry University.
Between them they're working down more than a dozen separate technical channels, each headed up by a partner overseeing groups of contractors and subcontractors. Along with the large vehicle platform, the project covers battery cells and power packs, drive motors, drive motors, power electronics and management systems, structural weight reduction and aerodynamic research, auxiliary power units, vehicle dynamics, HVAC and system cooling optimisation, energy storage, waste minimisation and ergonomics.
The large car platform will be based on Land Rover's Freelander 2. Development will take place in three phases. First comes the basic powertrain conversion from IC to battery electric (BEV), set for completion in Q2 2011. Next will come location awareness and adaptive route control systems, a substantial weight loss and aerodynamics overhaul, likely complete mid-year. From there, the powertrain architecture morphs into a range-extended hybrid version using a petrol engine feeding a generator on-board battery recharging.
The group expects this be complete late 2011. After tweakwork on HVAC and auxiliary systems, it will be ready for use early 2012.
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