If you’re a fan of Formula One racing, then you’ll be used to hearing the term KERS. It stands for Kinetic Energy Recovery System, and it allows the recovery of energy under braking, which is then stored and used at a later time.
In Formula One, KERS is used to increase the speed of the cars for short periods of time, and typically allows them to go between 10-13mph faster in short bursts. But the same system can be used to help improve the economy of modern road vehicles, too.
The problem with KERS systems in the past is they were very heavy due to the fact they were made out of steel, but Volvo has developed a new Flywheel KERS system that is manufactured using the much lighter carbon fiber. Another advantage of using carbon fiber is that the flywheel can rotate faster, in this case up to 60,000 rpm, allowing for much higher energy storage.
What Volvo intends to do is fit their KERS system to the rear axle of their cars. When driving along and the brakes are applied, energy is stored in the flywheel and the car’s engine is turned off. Then, when the driver pushes the accelerator pedal again, instead of the engine turning back on immediately the energy stored in the flywheel is used first and applied to the back wheels.
Such a system not only ups the fuel efficiency of the car, which according to Volvo is up to 25 percent better, it also improves the performance of the car in terms of how fast it can accelerate–a boost of up to 80 horsepower. Volvo also says the Flywheel KERS system is best suited to traveling in city traffic where you typically accelerate and then brake repeatedly.
The final Flywheel KERS system Volvo has designed measures just 20cm across and weighs 6kg. The flywheel spins in a vacuum so as to minimize friction and therefore increase the amount of energy it can store. Volvo plans to include it alongside a four-cylinder turbo engine, but there’s no details yet of when we can see it appearing on a production car.
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