Overview
The development of future vehicle powertrains must ensure compliance with the increasingly stringent emissions legislation and achieve improvements in sustainability - in particular a significant reduction of CO2 emissions. Lower CO2 emissions in short and medium term can be achieved only by a further reduction in fuel consumption. For this purpose, a continuous development and increased efficiency of powertrain technology is required. With alternative powertrain technologies / hybrid concepts the availability of fossil energy resources can be extended and a CO2 emission reduction can be achieved due to reduced fuel consumption.
This study is intended to represent new hybrid concepts systematically. Doing this, the emphasis should particularly be on innovative concepts that go beyond the currently often discussed approaches.
In the study, the following works were carried out:
- Definition of requirements for future mobility as a basis for the selection of hybrid concepts
- Selection and evaluation of relevant components
- Evaluating different concepts with regard to technical , ecological (Life Cycle Assessment LCA) and economic (Life Cycle Costing LCC) criteria
- Analysis of the implementation potential of relevant concepts for the Austrian Automotive Industry
- Deriving research and development needs for the Austrian Automotive Industry
Funding
Results
Before new technologies can be established in the market, sustainable technical innovation is needed. Costs must be reduced and substantial investments need to be made. E.g. the energy storage technology of electric vehicles should be further optimized to be increasingly competitive to conventional cars in terms of cost, range, speed, load time and space. This requires the flexibility of the company to respond quickly to changing conditions and to be able to offer an optimal solution for the respective application.
In an ecological evaluation of different powertrain systems could be proofed that the drive with flywheel and the serial drive (hybrid) depending on electricity sources and composition obtain a superior outcome for environmental protection. The electricity source and thus the kind of electricity production can change the result in a tremendous way.
In future, there won’t be a single superior vehicle concept. Various technologies and concepts will be used for different purpose.
Findings of the study are published in detail by a final report (German only) which is available online via the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT) at:
www2.ffg.at/verkehr/file.php?id=253