The United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Chrysler Group will adapt a hydraulic hybrid technology that could potentially increase overall fuel efficiency by up to 35 percent and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent.
“Hydraulic hybrid vehicles represent the cutting edge of fuel-efficiency technology and are one of many approaches we’re taking to save money for drivers, clean up the air we breathe and cut the greenhouse gases that jeopardize our health and prosperity,” said Lisa Jackson, administrator of the agency.
The research partnership will focus on adapting and applying the agency’s patented hydraulic hybrid system to a Chrysler Town and Country minivan.
The hydraulic hybrid system, developed in the agency’s laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan, captures and reuses energy used up when braking via a hydraulic pressure vessel.
The system is also said to be capable of turning off the engine when it is not needed and using the engine fully only when it can operate at peak efficiency.
The system has already been applied and successfully used with large delivery trucks and refuse trucks. The partnership will trim down the size and complexity of the current systems and adapt them for large passenger cars and light-duty vehicles.
The agency and Chrysler will conduct the research at the National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory, which holds over 60 patents and is a top player in the clean energy economy.
Chrysler has already been adopting fuel-saving technologies in their vehicles, such as cylinder deactivation on V-8 engines and an eight-speed transmission in the 2011 Chrysler 300, which will be unveiled later this year.
The group is also set to introduce 150 units of Ram 1500 trucks incorporated with a plug-in hybrid system in the following months under a project with the United States Department of Transportation.
