Volvo has announced a successful end to four years of studying a kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) for use in its future passenger cars. Volvo claims that the system can add up to 80 horsepower under acceleration while cutting overall fuel consumption by 25 percent. The system has been tested on public roads as well as test tracks in Sweden and the U.K. as part of its Drive-E powertrain research program, and is described by Volvo as "a lightweight, financially viable, and very efficient solution."
Back in 2011, Volvo provided details of its KERS system, which essentially consists of a steel hub with a carbon-fiber rotor that weighs about 13 pounds and spins in a vacuum to minimize frictional losses. It is mechanically connected to the rear axle of a front-wheel-drive vehicle—in this case a Volvo S60 T5—via a special continuously variable transmission, while the front axle is powered by a 254-hp five-cylinder T5 gas engine. Under braking, the gas engine turns off, while kinetic energy is transferred from the wheels to the KERS system to spin the flywheel at up to 60,000 rpm. Upon acceleration, the energy of the spinning flywheel is transferred back to the rear wheels via a specially designed transmission, Volvo says, and can either boost power or reduce load on the engine. Volvo also claims that the energy in the flywheel can also be used to power the vehicle once it reaches cruising speed.
Volvo claims that its S60 test car can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph about 1.5 seconds quicker than a non-KERS-equipped model, which by our estimation, would bring that time down to the low five-second range. Meanwhile, KERS effectively turns the front-drive S60 into a part-time four-wheel-drive vehicle under acceleration.
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Volvo has toyed with flywheel propulsion before, dating back to tests run with a Volvo 260 in the 1980s. Other carmakers, namely Ferrari and Jaguar are using KERS systems as well, although they aren't always of the flywheel variety.
"The next step after completing these successful tests is to evaluate how the technology can be implemented in our upcoming car models," Volvo says.
from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/nSHy27
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