Regenerative Braking For Non-hybrids
How engineers are capturing energy to provide efficiency without batteries
No engineers are not using the souls of orphan children either instead its soul-free capacitors. With the current oil prices as well as unstable dictators and governments who need more tax revenue, we the drivers were left to foot the bill. So if we can look for a vehicle that delivers better efficiency yet still is competitively priced then the likelihood of us purchasing that said vehicle is pretty high. Auto manufacturers are not idiots when it comes to looking at sales trends as well as governments raising fuel efficiency standards. In order to make the miles per gallon go up and emissions down auto manufacturers have started lengthening the engineers’ leashes. As a result we are seeing creative ideas being brought forth that not only makes sense but we also already have the technology.
Mazda said batteries were not the answer and I am starting to agree
The smart cats over a Mazda have looked at batteries and decided that they’re too heavy, and too expensive. The engineers start working on storing electricity through capacitors; these capacitors have been around for years and can be found relatively inexpensive cost especially when compared to lithium batteries. The process is similar to hybrid design as it uses regenerative braking in order to charge up the capacitors. Energy being released from the capacitors will be sent through DC converter that will step down the voltage to 12 V which will be routed to the vehicles electrical system therefore helping to power all the electrical components. Mazda states that just this system will improve overall efficiency by 10%. And that’s just for starters as it looks like we might be seeing electric power steering as well as AC compressor which will help the engine as it has less resistance due to fewer accessories. And as I stated before this technology is already available and should be seen making its way into 2013 0r 2014 Mazda vehicles. Since this system will be mass-produced we can see it being placed on every Mazda vehicle in the lineup. Mazda has dubbed the system i-ELOOP as it will loop energy instead of simply wasting it whenever braking and it will weigh much less than batteries.
40 MPG 2013 Mazda CX-5 yes please
So we should see vehicles such as the 2013 Mazda CX-5 Crossover getting 40 miles to the gallon on the highway. And as the system is refined we should see more and more auto manufacturers working out deals with Mazda for building their own capacitors in order to do similar type energy-savings.
