HEVT Showcases Converted F-150 PHEV

29 July 2008

Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technologies, Inc. (HEVT) introduced a prototype plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) version of the Ford F-150 pickup truck at the Plug-In 2008 Conference and Exposition in San Jose, California last week. Converted with a proprietary adaptive controller and using a scaled-down version of a proprietary drivetrain HEVT has designed for transit buses, the F-150 PHEV, with its 12 kWh battery pack, offers up to 15 miles all-electric range (AER).

HEVT projects that the conversion will deliver up to 41 mpg for 30 miles/day at mixed speed driving, and up to 21 mpg as a hybrid operating in charge-sustaining mode. The conversion also has vehicle-to-grid capability, and offers on-board 120V power.

The HEVT conversion integrates an electric motor/generator with the existing F-150 drivetrain through the use of a modified differential for electric traction. The HEVT team used an NiMH pack in the current prototype, and is currently considering Li-ion batteries, according to Dr. Ali Emadi, HEVT founder and director of the Electric Power and Power Electronics Center at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). Some HEVT conversions will use Li-ion, others will use NiMH, he said.

The core of HEVT’s intellectual property is the Adaptive Control Unit (ACU), a controller tailored to adapt in real-time to changing external and internal conditions to optimize performance. The ACU controls use of both the electric motor and gasoline engine.  An in-dash display unit monitors performance, indicating the charge remaining in the battery pack and the energy recovered through regenerative-braking.

The prototype demonstrates the potential for the retrofitting of exisiting PSVs (pickups, SUVs, and vans), and was referenced by Andy Grove during his keynote address at the event in which he called for a focused effort on the conversion of PSVs to plug-in vehicles. (Earlier post.)

HEVT is an early-stage technology venture specializing in design and development of hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle controllers, drive trains, and conversions. The F-150 system design can scale to convert larger models (F-250, F-350, etc.), and the HEVT team is also developing a PHEV school bus conversion using a 35 kWh pack to provide up to 15 miles AER.

The company has exclusive rights to the intellectual property, patents and patents-pending developed by Professor Emadi and the Power Electronics and Motor Drives Laboratory at IIT.

HEVT’s solutions apply to not just smaller passenger cars and hybrids, but almost any vehicle including larger gas guzzlers. Our laboratory simulations show that the larger the vehicle, the greater the benefits—in gas costs, particulate and greenhouse emissions, and sound pollution. For this reason we are currently focused on PSVs and will later expand to school buses as well as transit buses.

—Ali Emadi

HEVT is beginning with a small pilot program of Ford F-150 pickup truck conversions available to organizations and individuals on a custom basis at $60,000 each. The pilot program will help HEVT’s continued development and optimization, pushing conversion costs down and lowering lifetime cost of ownership for converted vehicles. HEVT projects an $80,000 cost for the PHEV school bus conversion.