Iveco Provides Diesel Hybrid Vans for Turin Games

14 February 2006

The Ecodriver in Torino.

Iveco, a Fiat Group company and a major global manufacturer of commercial vehicles, has provided two hybrid versions of its Daily transport van to Gruppo Torinese Trasporti (GTT), the company that runs public transport in and around Turin, for use during the Olympics.

The Daily Ecodriver (Energy COnversion and DRIVeline Efficient Reengineering) parallel hybrids, developed jointly with Bosch, join approximately 200 natural gas vehicles that Iveco had already supplied to GTT.

Fiat and Iveco have a range of different types of hybrid powertrains under development. The Ecodriver—an inline parallel configuration that can be applied to a range of vehicles—is one of them.

The Ecodriver hybrid powertrain. Click to enlarge.

The Daily Ecodriver hybrid uses an axially mounted 45 kW, 240 Nm motor/generator interconnected via two clutches to a downsized 2.3-liter diesel engine (the F1A rather than the 3.0-liter F1C) and to an automated-manual transmission. (Fiat has filed a patent on the motor/generator with the double clutch lay-out.)

Iveco estimates that the Daily Ecodriver will deliver a 25% reduction in fuel consumption, along with corresponding reductions in emissions.

The Ecodriver uses a 400V battery pack for energy storage.

Fiat has also demonstrated the Ecodriver system on a Multipla natural gas vehicle prototype using a 1.6-liter CNG engine.

Iveco is part of the Torino 2006 Sponsor and Sustainability program, which aims to highlight the environmental initiatives put in place by TOROC (Turin Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games) and its partners.