Jaguar Land Rover Developing New Flywheel Hybrid Tech.

When the Technology Strategy Board received funding in Mayfor various eco-projects, one of the items on the TSB's list was a flywheel-based hybrid drive system. Connected automakers Jaguar, Land Rover and Ford are part of this project (along with Flybrid Systems, Ford Motor Company, Prodrive, Ricardo UK Ltd, Torotrak plc, and Xtrac Ltd.) and the Technology Strategy Board announced this week that the flywheel technology is proceeding as planned. We have a lot of hope for flywheel tech, and it made our list of most promising green technologies.

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Agent63 - 7/6/2008 11:51:41 PM

+1 Boost

I'm glad all the automakers are going greener. Maybe not by much but it's a start. All thanks to Honda who first introduced it. It's too bad they came out with it in a bad time when the awareness level wasn't high. Toyota picked up on it at the perfect time.

hybridfarce - 7/7/2008 12:22:55 AM

+1 Boost

This is very interesting technology to add to a car. The flywheel’s rotational energy is directly proportional to its mass, so the heavier the flywheel is, the more energy it can store. I wonder what size mass (weight) Jag is talking about? Too much, and the car’s balance will be changed. I think there is also a gyroscopic effect caused by a flywheel (not good in a sports car), but if Formula One is looking at it (see the article link), then this is not an issue.

Agent63 - 7/7/2008 6:19:42 AM

+1 Boost

I'm sure Tata has more money floating around than Ford does so they should be funded very well for developing this technology. But good point you make.

holmstar - 7/7/2008 12:30:27 PM

+1 Boost

the "gyroscopic" forces can be delt with by allowing the flywheel assembly to rotate with respect to the car, with something like a shock absorber to damp the motion. Yes, there would still be some effect, but I'm sure it could be handled. Another problem would be the torque on the car from accelerating/decelerating the flywheel. Flywheels can store tremendous amounts of energy.

Speaking of tremendous amounts of energy... Think about what could happen with one of these if you got severely rear-ended after a panic-stop on the highway. Your flywheel just got spun up to say 60k rpms when it gets smacked by the colision and bam! Your flywheel becomes hundreds of projectiles moving as fast as bullets in all directions. Anyone within a quarter mile could be killed, including most likely everyone in your car.

There better be some impressive armor around those flywheels.