In what is understood to be an Australian first, the School of Engineering at the University of Tasmania has developed a pilot hybrid electric scooter which runs both on state-of-the-art battery technology and an ethanol-blend driven internal combustion engine.
The scooter has been developed by a strong research team in Automotive Technology and Electrical Engineering as part of their push to build capabilities in Australia in alternative energy.
Steven Ambrose, a research scholar within the Engineering School who helped build the scooter, said its features included:
• a state-of-the-art regenerative braking system which charges the batteries as the brake is applied;
• advanced control systems which start the ethanol-blend engine to assist during acceleration and steep climbs;
• an ability to reach a top speed of 80k/ph when both energy sources work together;
• a recharge time of 40 mins when all recharge systems – including plug in - are combined;
• costs about $1500 for all the add-on modules for an existing scooter;
• on hybrid mode, the scooter uses only 1.7 litres of ethanol blend per 100km – 35 per cent less fuel than a petrol-only scooter.
What's particularly interesting is the fact that it's being developed as an add-on for existing scoots - could see it far more readily accepted than the fully electric varieties starting to hit the market. Though does seem to still suffer from the problem of the amount of time needed to break even. A 35% fuel saving means you'd need to have gone far enough to have used around 4 grand of fuel - which for a scoot would easily be 50,000+kms. Still it's a lot cheaper than buying an electric scoot or a Prius if you want to be seen as trying to save the planet I guess.
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Better to be known as a slow rider, than remembered as a fast one. Project Kat
Personally knowing Steve and the struggles he has had with his hybrid scooter i'ld say "tedious journey" is about right. What isn't mentioned there is that the scooter is 2 wheel drive, with the electric motor driving the front wheel. And the 'able to reach 80km/h when both sources are working together' is slightly misleading, the electric motor cuts out at around 40km/h (from memory).
that's great!! a hybrid scooter engine!!! Who would have thought!! And it comes from Tasmania!!! that's great news, because i thought that Tasmanians are backward and not up to date etc..
That's great.... =D>
oups, wait a minute... Hasn't Piaggio already developed a hybrid engine to fit the X8 and mp3? oh sh1t... someone need to tell that the School of Engineering that the wheel has already been invented... http://tinyurl.com/2msye6
And in all that researching you didn't bother to read the entire article I posted the link to
Quote:
Chief investigator, Dr Vishy Karri, said that while hybrid technology was well advanced in the US, Europe and Japan, the fact Australia was now developing its own expertise was “very satisfying”.
No one said it was new technology (only an Australian first) - but the fact it's being developed here makes it somewhat more relevant (and most likely a lot cheaper) than something being developed on the other side of the world. And the Piaggo system isn't designed to be retro-fitted to existing scooters either.
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Better to be known as a slow rider, than remembered as a fast one. Project Kat
Hybrid Scooter
