Peugeot Citroen’s announcement marks a major step forward in the production of eco-friendly vehicles. Image: PSA Peugeot Citroen
Peugeot Citroen’s announcement marks a major step forward in the production of eco-friendly vehicles. Image: PSA Peugeot Citroen
French car manufacturer Peugeot Citroen has recently announced their plans to release the World’s first air fuelled hybrid car in 2016. This is a step in the right direction towards making the industry more environmentally friendly.
After officially launching the Hybrid Air vehicle to the world at the Geneva motor show last month, Peugeot Citroen revealed the release date causing great excitement across the industry. Of course, the car doesn’t run solely on air, but uses new technologies to combine air with the petrol engine, making it both more environmentally friendly, and, (perhaps more importantly), cheaper than the electric car!
The Hybrid Air uses an innovative combination of tried and tested technologies: a petrol engine, a unit to store energy in the form of compressed air, a hydraulic motor-pump assembly and an automatic transmission working with an epicyclic gear train.
The smart control system adapts the operating mode to the driver's commands and optimises energy efficiency in three different modes: ZEV (Zero Emission Vehicle), petrol internal combustion and combined.
The compressed air system kicks in when the car runs below 43 MPH. Like other hybrids, a gasoline engine takes over after the car passes its threshold speed.
The Hybrid Air can go 100 kilometers (60 miles) on 2.9 liters of gasoline, and represents a key step towards the goal of developing a vehicle by 2020 that will travel 100 km on just two liters of fuel!
PSA says for city driving, its Hybrid Air system provides fuel savings of 45 percent and increases a vehicle’s range by 90 percent compared to conventional engines with the same power rating.
The technology is less mechanically complex than the electric hybrid, making it easier and cheaper to service.
We may have to wait and see! Performance might not be the best, as compressed air struggles to match the efficiency or energy density of batteries or liquid fuels.
The air tank is large and cumbersome, and may be difficult to integrate into the car economically.
There may be an indirect loss of energy; in compressing the air to run the motor, some energy will be inevitably lost. There may also be problems with keeping the air at the correct temperature, as, when air expands in the engine it cools dramatically and must be heated to ambient temperature using a heat exchanger. These quick heat variations may be problematic in cool, moist climates, where the device could ice up.
We won’t know for sure how successful Peugeot Citroen will be in this venture until the car hits the road, but it certainly marks a significant advancement in the automotive industry, and could be a complete game changer.
