Automotive News Europe - March 2013 - 20

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

SUPPLIERS

PSA and Bosch unveil
battery-free hybrid
Production models powered by compressed air could launch by 2016
BRUCE GAIN
bgain@crain.com

SA/Peugeot-Citroen plans to launch
hybrid cars partially powered by
compressed air by 2016. The carmaker
says the so-called Hybrid Air system
developed with supplier Robert Bosch
will be lighter than a hybrid running on
gasoline and battery power.
A PSA spokesman told Automotive News
Europe that the automaker plans production models with the hybrid hydraulic system in its minicars and subcompacts. Both Peugeot and Citroen will
introduce the technology in their cars
simultaneously, he said. GM will likely
use the system as part of its alliance
with PSA, the spokesman said.
The technology will reduce the cost of
cutting emissions compared with current
hybrids. “The cost per gram of CO2 reduction is going to be very competitive,”
Bosch automotive chief Bernd Bohr said.
PSA aims to price subcompacts with
the technology below 20,000 euros,
development chief Guillaume Faury
said. A similarly sized Toyota Yaris
gasoline-electric hybrid starts at 18,500
euros in France, excluding environmentrelated discounts. Faury declined to
give a detailed cost estimates but said
the new drivetrain would cut the cost
per gram of CO2 saved by half when
compared with equivalent gasolineelectric hybrids.
Compressed-air hybrids could attract
customers to the Peugeot and Citroen
brands, if the retail prices of those cars
are lower than prices of conventional
hybrids, said IHS Automotive analyst
Ian Fletcher. “PSA says the compressed-air hybrid will be far cheaper
than a Yaris hybrid,” Fletcher said, “but
we will have to see.”
The hybrid system consists of two
hydraulic units and two nitrogen storage

www.autonewseurope.com

In city driving conditions, vehicles with PSA and Bosch’s hybrid hydraulic
powertrain can travel on emissions-free, compressed air power as much as
80 percent of the time.
tanks, which are also called pressure
accumulators. The hydraulic units drive
the powertrain using pressure from
the nitrogen tanks. The pressure in the
nitrogen storage tanks increases when
energy is transferred from the car’s
brakes and the combustion engine. The
hydraulic system allows the vehicle to
be driven in three ways: the conventional mechanical way, hydraulically,
or by a combination of the two. When
running on the combustion engine only,
excess power that would otherwise be
wasted is used to add pressure inside
the nitrogen tanks.
In city driving conditions, the vehicles
with the system can travel on emissions-free, compressed air power as
much as 80 percent of the time, PSA
said. Bosch said the technology can be
combined with any conventional internal combustion engine and is suitable
for all passenger-car segments and light
commercial vehicles in urban traffic.
“This hydraulic-mechanical powertrain
system results in a hybrid powertrain
that is more cost-effective, robust, and

service-friendly. In addition, it does
not require any special infrastructure,
and can be deployed anywhere in the
world,” the supplier said.
PSA said a prototype Hybrid Air subcompact emitted 72 grams of CO2 per
kilometer, compared with 104g/km for
a Peugeot 208 model with the same
combustion engine. PSA’s Faury added
that the new power unit weighed 100kg,
about half that of typical hybrids.
Unspecified technical challenges have
yet to be overcome before a commercial
launch, Bosch’s Bohr said. “Some more
work will have to be done before these
cars enter the mass market,” he said.
European hybrid sales rose about
39 percent last year to 147,268 compared with 2011, according to data from
JATO Dynamics, even as the region’s
overall auto market shrank 8 percent
to a 17-year low of 12.5 million. PSA’s
diesel-electric hybrids claimed a
13 percent share of the sector last year,
according to JATO’s numbers.

MARCH 2013

http://www.autonewseurope.com

Automotive News Europe - March 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Europe - March 2013