We are on the way to a future in which the electric car has ballots to become the winning option. There are countries that are already betting very strong for electricity, so much that they are even unseating combustion. But, for many others, the conventional car is still the best option. And it is for autonomy, for ease when reposting and because there are places with underdeveloped load networks.
This is something that Chinese manufacturers themselves, who bet so much on the electric ones, have assumed. In fact, Chery, which is the company that owns Omoda and Jaecoo, is finalizing the landing of its combustion cars in Spain. But, of course, companies do not forget that electrified future and want to create a bridge between combustion and 100% electric for the user to jump safely.
And what is that bridge? A combustion engine to “hybridize” the electric ones for which Renault and Geely are betting hard.
The combustion engine to convince the ‘haters’ of the electric
Here we must talk about Horse PowerTrain. This is a company whose 45% belongs to the French Renault, another 45% to Geely and 10% to Aramco. It is a call joint venture To boost new automotive systems, especially electrified due to Geely’s experience. And the truth is that his approach is … curious.
And it is because they have been looking for an engine capable of giving life to the so -called “extended rank electric cars.” Also known as E-Rev (Extended Range Electric Vehicle), these cars have one or more electric motors that feed on a battery. So far, they are a conventional electric, okay, but special thing is that they have an additional engine: combustion.
Each manufacturer has its system, but it is basically a car that behaves like an electric, but When the battery reaches a certain level, the combustion engine is turned on And it is not the one that moves the wheels, but the one that generates electricity, feeds the battery and allows electric motors to have energy to continue driving the wheels.
The difference with a conventional hybrid is that this combustion engine is never the one that drives the car, and the great advantage is that this fuel engine is like a huge battery that allows autonomies that, until solid state batteries arrive, they seem complicated for 100%electric.
Reviewed the theory, let’s hort. A few weeks ago we told you that the company is going to try one of these engines, the promising Spanish E-Rex engine, but we also see that they will not put all the eggs in the same basket. In the Shanghai Motor Show that is celebrated this week (in which my partner Javier Lacort is), and as we read in Bloomberg, the general director of Horse has commented that they have prepared an engine that can “integrate without problems into the construction platforms of electric vehicles with battery”.
Matias Giannini has also commented that “the concept will allow car manufacturers to offer diversity in propulsion systems, with a minimum alteration in the production process of the same and in the use of resources.” Thus, if a brand has 100% electric, but wants a hybrid, I would not have to develop a new platform To include a large conventional engine, but to alter minimally the one that has already available for your electric only to introduce that small additional combustion engine.
And they don’t have one, but two:
- Gemini – A 1.0 -liter generator, 2 cylinders and a very compact power that works with mixtures of methanol and gasoline.
- Another 1.0 liters, 3 cylinders and a power of 86 kW compatible with flexible fuels and an integrated electric generator. This, by the way, is manufactured at the Curibita facilities in Brazil and Valladolid in Spain.
In the first statement, Giannini commented that these engines will be on the street at some point in 2028, and it is only a matter of time to see what arrives before: if solid state batteries, the consolidation of E-REV (BMW, Nixssan or Mazda already have some models) or if by 2028 everything will continue as until now.
Or, simply, the future of the electric may not be as binary as we think, but this intermediate hybridization.
Images | Horse Powertrain
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