Hybrid Electric Vehicles Range Extension Development Announced

FEV, a U.S. powertrain and vehicle technologies developer, announced that it has coupled one of its Auxiliary Power Units (APU) with a 3-cylinder engine for use in Hybrid Electric Vehicles.

The coupling of the unit with the engine extends the range of the standard Hybrid Electric Vehicle from 20 - 40 miles to 200 - 350 when this is required. Gary Rogers, FEV’s president and CEO made the announcement in conjunction with the 2010 SAE Hybrid Vehicle Technologies Symposium which starts tomorrow in San Diego, California. FEV will also be presenting its products at the conference. This could accelerate development of Range Extended Hybrid Electric Vehicles (ReHEV) by large automakers.

The APU is an interchangeable range exterior module engineered to be integrated in an electric vehicle’s structure to extend the latter’s range. APUs are designed to solve on the contemporary hybrid vehicles’ greatest problems, the range. Once an APU is integrated into a propulsion system, it has the ability to extend the latter’s range from 20 - 40 miles to 200 - 350 when needed. FEV offers a range of APUs destined for multiple vehicle applications, depending on the power requirement. The APU is designed as a multi-purpose compact unit using tested technology to bring 40 kW of power to EV architecture.

"FEV developed this concept to offer a viable solution to the limitations of current Hybrid Vehicle technology," said Rogers." Application of this technology in a production vehicle will change the way consumers view Hybrid Electric vehicles." he added.