Mini QED Hybrid-Electric Prototype
Designers at PML Flightlink have transformed a mini into a hybrid-electric performance vehicle. The car has a great fuel efficiency and performance specifications. It can achieve a top speed of 150mph and accelerates to 60mph in 4.5 seconds. The clever design incorporates four 160bhp electric motors (one on each wheel) which also function as the braking system. Electricity is generated and stored when the brakes are applied. Company executives are excited about this new electric car technology and hope to see it used on a larger scale. They are confident their technology can easily be fitted on most modern cars.
List the cars that could beat an Aston Martin from a standing start and the humble Mini wouldn’t be among them.
This model might look like an ordinary two-door hatchback – but it can out-accelerate a £110,000 DB9.
And it’s one of the greenest cars on the planet.
The Mini QED has pioneering electric technology, which gives it a top speed of 150mph and 0-60mph acceleration in just 4.5 seconds.
Specialists at PML Flightlink completely stripped out a standard Mini One and rebuilt it using new electric drive technology. The car is propelled by four 160bhp electric motors – one per wheel – which also act as the braking system. As each motor slows the car down, it harnesses the energy released through braking and converts it into stored energy to power the car.
The independent four-wheel drive also gives the car traction control and anti-lock braking in each wheel, which provides greater stability than any petrol engine vehicle.
The Mini can run for up to four hours or 250 miles with no emissions.
For longer journeys, a tiny four stroke engine can be switched on to power a highly-efficient electrical generator, which gives the car a range of around 1,000 miles between fuel stops.
Chris Newman, from PML Flightlink, which is based in Alton, Hants, said: “It’s probably the biggest technological leap forward for the automobile in the last 100 years.
“Today’s electric or hybrid-electric vehicles substantially under perform when compared with high-performance gasoline cars.
“We felt it was time to demonstrate what really can be achieved today using the best technology available.
“The Mini was chosen as the platform because of its broad appeal and iconic styling.
“However, it is not a light vehicle and has limited space to fit all the components needed. If it can work in a Mini then it would be comparatively easy to do the same in other vehicles.”
» Source: Mirror.co.uk
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February 2nd, 2009
Hybrid cars may be a trend but the are not that very solution. I think it is better to use an engine with a very low production effort and only little consumption. Fuel has always the highest density of transportable energy and modern systems reduce the emission in a very low range. With only little consumption of 1-2 litres it would be the greenest car this time. Hybrids need to the usual lousy engine additional the electro motors that means additional weight and additional production efforts and a higher price – so we get over all more disadvantages than with a well advanced combustion engine – have a look on >Stelzer Motor< It could be a way. It consists of 8 parts and only one of them acts, the other seven don’t move. Weight lower than 80 kg. Frequency 7.000-8.000 per minute. So the sound and vibration is very low. Power transmitting by liquids (or with a linear generator in case of hybrid – that could make sense). Proto types are working well. An actual engine – gas or hybrid – has a weight approx 200-300 kg with about 400 parts and halve of them are moving – often in a crash danger manner.