Yeah, the time has passed when the hybrid car was something supernatural – now, such cars are in the lineup of most leading automakers. But be that as it may, there are still sensations: at the Geneva auto exhibition, representatives of Citroen demonstrated the latest technology, which brings the future without exhaust from. We are talking about the premiere of Hybrid Air technology.
Hybrid Air – technology developed by the PSA Peugeot -Citroen group in close cooperation with Bosch specialists. The essence of this project is to use a 3-cylinder power plant with a 1.2 liter with a slope with a system of accumulation of energy in the form of compressed air. At the same time, the entire mechanism is equipped with two air pumps, as well as an automatic transmission built on the basis of a planetary gear structure.
The car equipped with a Hybrid Air unit can operate in three modes at once: “gasoline” (standard ICE), mixed (ICE using compressed air) and environmentally friendly (only compressed air is used).
By and large, the last regime makes it possible to move without the car outlet of any elements polluting the atmosphere. The principle of operation is simplified is as follows: the energy that was accumulated during the braking of the car, in the form of compressed air, enters the hydraulic motor, and already from it for the transmission and, accordingly, on the wheels. Such a system is able to disperse the machine to a speed of 70 km/h.
Among other things, representatives of the company assure that the latest hybrid unit is completely belt -acted and in terms of costs to manage an order of magnitude cheaper than ordinary hybrids. Moreover, due to the lack of such a source of energy as battery, the machine equipped with Hybrid Air technology weighs almost half the classic cars. As a result, fuel consumption in a mixed cycle does not exceed the indicator of 2.9 liters/100 km.
True, before the appearance of such cars on the roads, a certain amount of time should pass. From the comments of Bosch engineers, it follows that in order to fully implement this project, a very large amount of work has yet to be done. But, despite this, the French company is confident in its abilities, and promises to show the public the first serial pneumatic hybrid after about three years.