Photo: Daimler AG
Normally, pretty much every hybrid car out there could be tagged as having an intelligent hybrid drive system, as they all need micro-processors to calculate a number of extra equations compared to a regular econobox with an internal combustion engine.
This doesn't mean that all hybrid cars out there are equally smart though, and Mercedes-Benz was keen to show everyone just that in their latest press release about this subject.
Unsurprisingly named “Intelligent Hybrid,” the new Mercedes-Benz hybrid technology uses an energy management system that assesses the road ahead and simply acts accordingly, so that the average fuel consumption is always at the right levels in order for the system to offer the best economy.
As most of you probably now, there are a lot of hybrid cars out there who are simply wasting energy when driving downhill. This happens mostly because their batteries are usually full at the wrong time in order to be able to additionally store the free energy recuperated from driving downhill.
Since last year, the Intelligent Hybrid operating strategy employed in the hybrid variants of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class - which will soon be used in the new C-Class W205 as well - ensures that the battery is always charged just enough to benefit from the energy recuperation provided by driving downhill, depending on the terrain of the route taken.
Using data from the Comand Online navigation system to calculate the recuperation potential of the road ahead, the Central Powertrain Controller (CPC) of the Intelligent Hybrid system can then order the electric motor to automatically boost the combustion engine if the battery is full, just so that it can create room for the expected energy that is about to recuperated.
In turn, the extra boost from the electric motor makes the internal combustion engine stress less, thus decreasing the fuel consumption even more. How much fuel is being saved obviously depends on the topography of the roads ahead. We don't know about you but it looks like a win-win situation, at least in theory.
Unsurprisingly named “Intelligent Hybrid,” the new Mercedes-Benz hybrid technology uses an energy management system that assesses the road ahead and simply acts accordingly, so that the average fuel consumption is always at the right levels in order for the system to offer the best economy.
As most of you probably now, there are a lot of hybrid cars out there who are simply wasting energy when driving downhill. This happens mostly because their batteries are usually full at the wrong time in order to be able to additionally store the free energy recuperated from driving downhill.
Since last year, the Intelligent Hybrid operating strategy employed in the hybrid variants of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class - which will soon be used in the new C-Class W205 as well - ensures that the battery is always charged just enough to benefit from the energy recuperation provided by driving downhill, depending on the terrain of the route taken.
Using data from the Comand Online navigation system to calculate the recuperation potential of the road ahead, the Central Powertrain Controller (CPC) of the Intelligent Hybrid system can then order the electric motor to automatically boost the combustion engine if the battery is full, just so that it can create room for the expected energy that is about to recuperated.
In turn, the extra boost from the electric motor makes the internal combustion engine stress less, thus decreasing the fuel consumption even more. How much fuel is being saved obviously depends on the topography of the roads ahead. We don't know about you but it looks like a win-win situation, at least in theory.
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