Hyundai Motor Co., which last week announced plans to start retail sales in 2009 of hybrid electric vehicle passenger cars, has developed a cost and fuel-efficient city bus that employs a mild hybrid system based entirely on Hyundai’s proprietary technology. The application of a mild hybrid system to a commercial vehicle will accelerate the wider use of eco-friendly vehicles which reduce CO2 emissions and fuel costs.
The mild hybrid system uses an 8KW AC (alternating current) motor and generator which is used to automatically shut off the engine when the vehicle stops and to rapidly spin it back up when the driver releases the brake pedal. It also transforms wasted kinetic energy during braking of the vehicle into electrical energy which powers the engines cooling fan motor. Depending on driving conditions, a vehicle equipped with this mild hybrid system will be able to save between 15~20 percent in fuel costs.
This mild hybrid system can be easily applied to any diesel or CNG-powered vehicle and costs about one-fifth the price of a full hybrid system. While full hybrid systems can improve fuel efficiency by up to 50 percent compared to a conventionally-powered vehicle, their substantially higher initial cost results in a much longer payback period which make full hybrids less appealing to commercial vehicle fleet owners.
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