Ford Motor Company, Ricardo UK, Valeo and Gates have produced a micro-hybrid diesel delivery van that improves fuel consumption improvement by more than 21% in urban delivery drive cycles. The HyTrans vehicle—Europe’s first micro-hybrid diesel delivery van—is the result of 12 months of collaboration between the partners and the UK Department for Transport.

A micro-hybrid is a vehicle in which the electrical components of the hybrid powertrain provide functions such as stop/start and regenerative braking but do not supply additional torque when the engine is running.

Delivery vehicles—with their frequent braking and stopping in traffic and/or idling for deliveries—are good targets for such an application. You can see the difference in fuel consumption improvements in the test results summarized below.

Launched today at Ford’s Dunton Technical Centre in Essex, the HyTrans is based on the T280 Diesel Ford Transit to which a Valeo 4kW 42V belt-driven combined starter/alternator (StARS) system is fitted (at right), along with a Valeo 1.5kW 14/42V DC/DC converter, advanced 36V lead acid battery and Valeo Battery Management System (BMS). (Ford refers to the StARS system as a Belt-driven Integrated Starter Generator System—B-ISG.)

The belt-driven combined starter alternator is connected to the engine through a Gates-designed Front End Ancillary Drive (FEAD) system and the vehicle’s stop/start and regenerative braking functions are managed by a Ricardo supervisory control system embedded in a production-derived engine management unit.

The partners tested HyTrans over two real-world drive cycles based on customer data in addition to the legislated New European Drive Cycle (NEDC).  The results of both simulated and measured fuel consumption savings for the HyTrans vehicle in comparison with a baseline diesel Transit are below:

Again, the most dramatic improvement in fuel consumption is during the door-to-door cycle.

The HyTrans research vehicle has demonstrated that fuel consumption savings in excess of 20 per cent are achievable based on a real-world urban delivery drive cycle. While more extensive hybridisation may be appropriate to many other duty cycles and applications, the diesel micro-hybrid offers a particularly cost-effective and practical solution for the rapidly expanding urban delivery market sector.

Rodney Westhead, Ricardo CEO

HyTrans will now undergo a 12-month demonstration and test program which will see it being driven and appraised by fleets and other prospective customers. Ford will review the results and decide whether or not to go into production in early 2006.