Range Extender for Two-Wheeler Applications

The scooter market class L1e (<50cm³, speed limited to 45km/h) is facing a significant change due to the implementation of the new EURO 3 regulation, obligatory for new type approval by 2014 and for all newly licenced types by 2015, the market will suffer the loss of low cost vehicles due to the requested durability of exhaust gas after treatment systems. More complex drive units will have to follow. Pure electric scooters pose a further possibility to respond to the new requirements. A significant cost increase is common to all of these approaches. The goal is to find an alternative to be able to comply with the requirements of emission legislation and to keep the product price as low as possible at the same time. A technological comparison of different approaches revealed the series hybrid variant as most promising. The evaluated system and the derived concept consist of a combination of an electric scooter with a halved battery size (cost reduction) and a Range Extender with the possibility to extend, if necessary, the range to the standard of conventional ICE variants. This alternative is able to offer electro-mobility and therewith local zero emissions without the immanent “range anxiety” usually caused by pure electric vehicles [8]. Having defined the system layout as plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle (PHEV) and checked the characteristics of single components in numerous preliminary investigations, a longitudinal backward simulation was carried out. It permits the testing of different operational strategies in combination with a subsequent evaluation of the fuel consumption reduction potential [16]. A packaging analysis could verify the constructive feasibility. Finally, the draft design of a Range Extender vehicle will be presented showing the potential of CO2 reduction.