Vitesco Technologies Cuts Costs for Plug-In Hybrid Powertrain

• Vitesco Technologies presents cost effective hybrid transmission with integrated electric motors
• ​Expanded role for electric motors results in vastly simplified transmission architecture and reduced costs
• Solution enables energy-saving high-voltage hybrid vehicles to be tailored to the mass market

Vitesco Technologies is using its know-how in the field of powertrain electrification to pave the way for genuinely affordable hybrid vehicles. The task is made all the more challenging by the fact that a hybrid has two power sources – an internal combustion engine and an electric motor, complete with power electronics and battery. This additional technical infrastructure can raise the cost of an all-electric-capable high-voltage hybrid to a level that prohibits significant market penetration. If hybrid vehicles, which are now often capable of an electric driving range of 50 km or more, weren’t so expensive, they could potentially play a significant role in reducing CO2 emissions from everyday driving. Vitesco Technologies has now come up with a solution: The key here was to break with conventional thinking on powertrain design and develop a concept that reassigns a number of functions previously performed by the transmission. At the heart of Vitesco Technologies’ solution is the expanded role played by the electric motor, which no longer simply acts as a means of propulsion and energy recuperation...

source:vitesco-technologies...