Bibendum bounce

There’s nothing like it anywhere: Michelin’s Challenge Bibendum, a confluence of automotive engineers, academics, and inventors from around the world showcasing advanced technologies in the name of environmentally positive transportation. This year’s event, held in September at Infineon Raceway near Sonoma, Calif., featured vehicles and technology from marquee manufacturers but also from obscure, niche outfits representing all facets of vehicle research and development.

For the first time, heavy trucks were among the some 200 vehicles actively involved in the five-day event, on display and competing side by side with electric cars, fuel-cell buses, and natural-gas-powered trucks. The event is so focused on what Michelin’s CEO Edouard Michelin calls “sustainable mobility”

that at no point during the week does anybody from Michelin so much as mention tires. It’s all about the future.

And if Bibendum is any indication, the future includes electric/diesel combos and brakes that rev you up.

Eaton Corp. showed off its Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) powertrain and Hydraulic Launch Assist (HLA)
technologies.

Part of a larger hydraulic hybrid development effort with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, HLA works by recovering a portion of the energy normally wasted as heat by the vehicle’s brakes. This converted energy is held in fluid form in an on-board reservoir, or accumulator, until the driver next accelerates the vehicle.

Fuel savings occur when the stored energy is then used in conjunction with engine-based power in the initial, high-fuel-consumption acceleration of the vehicle. Acceleration is brisk due to the high power density of hydraulics, and the energy transfer is said to be virtually transparent to the driver.

Eaton will aim HLA at classes 2 through 8 commercial vehicles, saying it can provide 25- to 35-per-cent better fuel economy and similar reductions in exhaust emissions in light-duty trucks (and even higher percentages in heavier vehicles in start-stop service). The system also can cut brake wear and deliver high torque quickly and at low speed.

Eaton’s HEV powertrain technology combines a diesel engine and electric motor to drive the vehicle. A computer determines the most efficient combination depending on operating conditions and driver demand. The engine size is reduced because of the added power provided by the electric motor.

The powertrain will be used in a low-emission vehicle that could become a standard medium-duty delivery truck for the FedEx Express fleet. The courier giant is buying 20 HEV-driven vans built on a Freightliner Custom Chassis foundation between now and early 2004. Called the FedEx OptiFleet E700, they’ll enter ordinary service in four yet-to-be-named American cities to see if they live up to their advance billing: the truck is said to decrease particulate emissions by 90 per cent, reduce smog-causing emissions by 75 per cent, and increase fuel efficiency by 50 per cent.

Also in the commercial truck arena: Volvo Trucks North America showed a VN day cab tractor with exhaust aftertreatment to reduce nitrous-oxide and particulate emissions. Called CEATS (Combined Exhaust Aftertreatment System), it uses selective catalytic reduction (SCR) with urea injection, a diesel particulate filter, and ultra-low-sulphur diesel fuel. CEATS is touted as an answer to the tough challenge of 2007 EPA emission standards. No mere prototype, this VN is one of 23 such trucks in day-to-day service at Talon Logistics, the distribution division of Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh, Pa., the largest privately held supermarket chain in the United States.

Freightliner Trucks took advantage of Bibendum to show off its SET vehicle (“Safety, Environment, Technology”), a Century Class S/T tractor with a second-generation auxiliary power unit based on a fuel cell. Introduced in 2000, the APU was developed by the truck maker and Vancouver-based Ballard Power Systems. It extracts hydrogen from methanol via chemical reaction, the only emissions being water vapor and carbon dioxide. With three times the capacity of the 2000 version, this APU generates up to five kilowatts of power. It won’t be ready for market for another few years.

Next year’s Bibendum will be in Shanghai, China