Peugeot-Citroen display future tech for cars
To introduce us to the future of automobile mobility, the Peugeot-Citroen alliance showcased a number of products at their R&D centre in Velizy, France. Here are some of the innovations which are expected to make their way into production cars from 2014.
A full-hybrid powertrain known as Hybrid Air which combines a petrol engine and compressed air for energy storage to achieve a target of 2l/100km by 2020. This hybrid uses a combination of a petrol engine, a unit to store energy in the form of compressed air, a hydraulic motor pump assembly, and an automatic transmission working with an epicyclic gear train. A smart control system switches between the three operating modes namely ZEV (zero emission vehicles, compressed air only), petrol internal combustion and combined, as per the driving conditions. Hybrid Air technology will be fitted on B-segment cars starting 2016. Advantage being this is mostly a mechanical technology, so ease of maintenance, affordable and applicable to every passenger car.
Other exhibits on the technology front were Eco Hybrid, dedicated exhaust gas recirculation system (EGR) for petrol engines, Hydole-mainly electric hybrid demonstrator, VelV-the light city electric vehicle, PSA's new global modular platform (EMP2) and Selective catalytic reduction (SCR)- to reduce NOx emissions by 90 per cent in diesels and reduce fuel consumption by 2-4 per cent.
