BRENTWOOD, 26 February, 2004—Ford Motor Company is to join forces with the Department for Transport, Ricardo Consulting Engineers, Valeo SA and the Gates Corporation in a £1.2 million government-funded research project to develop the first medium-sized commercial vehicle in Europe equipped with belt-driven integrated starter generator (ISG) technology. Within this project, the research engineers will focus on investigating an affordable hybrid solution that achieves the maximum fuel economy benefit.

Ford has helped come up with what may prove to be a cost-effective solution for van owners who want to cut diesel consumption and noise and exhaust emissions.

It's HyTrans, a micro-hybrid diesel-electric version of Transit that promises to use 21.3 per cent less fuel than the standard model on door-to-door delivery work. Drive from one neighbourhood to the next and you should save 6.3 per cent.

That's because HyTrans is fitted with electric belt-driven ISG — Integrated Starter Generator — technology. After an initial warm-up period it switches the engine off automatically whenever Transit is stationary in traffic or making deliveries.

What's more, it offers regenerative braking. This means that waste braking energy is turned into stored electrical energy to top up the van's batteries. It's then available to power the vehicle's systems.

Behind the Wheel

We sampled HyTrans on a test track at Ford's huge Dunton Technical Centre in Essex and found it remarkably easy to get used to.

To kill the engine, all you need to do is dip the clutch pedal and move the gear lever to neutral. To restart it, you dip the pedal again — it's as simple as that.

 

What amazed us is how quickly and quietly the engine fires up again. Ford reckons that it takes 400 milliseconds as opposed to a full second on the standard model. This means the engine is already ticking over before gear selection is completed.

The system was fitted to an otherwise standard T280 2.0-litre front-wheel-drive diesel Transit van, but there's no reason why it shouldn't be fitted to many other models in the Transit range, including rear-wheel drive variants. It has no impact on payload capacity, says the company.

Ford hasn't developed the newcomer on its own. Component manufacturers Valeo and Gates have been involved in the year-long programme too, as has leading automotive engineering consultancy Ricardo.

 

Valeo came up with the StARS combined starter and alternator plus a system to manage the advanced 36v lead acid battery. Gates came up with the front end ancillary drive that connects StARS to the engine.

The stop/start and regenerative braking functions are managed by a Ricardo supervisory control package. Ricardo acted as project leader.

What's more, the project has received support from the Department for Transport. Co-funded by all the partners, the entire package cost just £1.3m to develop — peanuts in motor industry terms — with the DfT stumping up roughly 50 per cent via the New Vehicle Technology Fund.

HyTrans Transit will be on trial with fleet operators and other interested parties for the rest of this year. If they give it the thumbs-up, then the newcomer could go into production during 2006.

Any drawbacks? The impact of continually cutting the engine might have on the operation of fridge units and in-cab air conditioning is one to consider, and the need to depress the clutch pedal means that the HyTrans package as it stands can't be fitted to Transits equipped with Durashift. That's Ford's automated, clutch-pedal-less, manual transmission.

Systems that cut the engine automatically when a vehicle is stationary aren't exactly new. Several manufacturers have offered them in the UK over the years but with only limited success.

Diesel Mercedes-Benz Sprinters with manual gearboxes are available with one called Stop Start for an additional £175. The fuel saving claims made for it are more conservative than those made for HyTrans, however, and the take-up has been very low. Stop Start does not include regenerative braking.

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