At the CTI Symposium USA in May 2024, Aditya Dattawadkar, Schaeffler, presented recent advances in hybrid architectures in his talk “Hybrids are Making a Comeback”. In our interview, we followed up by asking: What will tomorrow’s hybrid drives look like?
Interest in hybrids has been growing again recently in the US, as well as in the UK for example. Why would you say that is?
I think right now, people everywhere are looking for an option that lets them try going electric as they look for better performance or more fuel economy. Because of range and charging network availability, many don’t want to jump straight from an engine-based car to a battery-electric. That’s where hybrids come in. They allow people to try these electric vehicles, let’s say semi-electric vehicles, without jumping straight to BEV. And whether it’s in the US, UK or somewhere else, I think the challenges and anxieties are similar.
Powertrain diversity is generally increasing. How would you differentiate between designs for various vehicle segments – for example B to E and SUVs or pick-up trucks?
If someone buys a smaller vehicle, they will likely lean towards a battery electric vehicle, as long as the price is OK and it has a decent range. People mostly use them for daily commuting or for short-distance travel. But bigger vehicles, like SUVs or pick-up trucks, are generally meant for longer distances – towing boats or trailers, transporting bigger families, and so on. That’s where hybrids are better suited, either as plug-ins or full hybrids. Whether you choose plug-in or full hybrid will depend on efficiency calculations. If you’re constantly driving long distances, a full hybrid might be better than a plug-in because you reduce the amount of energy conversions or carry a smaller size motor. Additionally, the city v/s highway driving can influence these calculations. But if you want to sample the flavor of a battery-electric vehicle, a plug-in hybrid is a good solution.
So far, most hybrid designs in western markets have been add-on P2 designs, not dedicated solutions. Which type would you recommend?
Part of the reason why P2 designs have been popular is because you can fit them in into existing powertrains with less difficulty. You don’t need to change the engine design; you don’t have to change the transmission architecture significantly. Having said that, I think in future, serial-parallel designs will see increased adoption. Then of course a P1/P3 multimode transmission like ours also has great potential in my opinion. We will probably see that each of these solutions has an advantage for a specific application. When hybrids started, they were basically an electric motor that supported the ICE. Now we’re going to see hybrids that are more of an electric vehicle, with an ICE for support. So, it’s going to be a different type of hybrid than what we’ve seen in the past.
Will multimode hybrids and range extenders replace P2 designs, or is there still a place for them?
Serial and multimode hybrids make a lot of sense for people with flexible driving habits. But P2 still makes most sense for people who have consistently longer drives and heavy load requirements, because we don’t want to get into ICE recharging mode regularly. Due to the additional energy conversions, the goal should be to use the feature of recharging battery with ICE in serial hybrids only occasionally when necessary. Based on use cases of individuals every hybrid architecture provides some advantages based on the application.
How close can a PHEV with a suitable drive architecture get to a BEV in terms of efficiency, in electric operation?
I think it’s a little bit unfair to compare the efficiency of PHEVs and BEVs, because the goal of a PHEV is to let you drive electrically for a limited range. PHEVs exist because today’s battery-electric vehicles can’t meet every customer’s needs, especially their long-range needs. A fair question might be whether PHEVs are better than the ICEs we have. I think they are, because you can charge them with an outlet. So, then you have a cleaner source of energy for driving in cities, where you want to focus on limiting emissions due to congestion. One has the ability to use some PHEVs similar to BEVs for limited range.
China announced last year that the ICE would be needed up until 2060. Looking at the US and Europe, what prospects do you see for HEVs and PHEVs?
It’s really hard to predict what kind of drives we will have in 2060. Just ten or fifteen years ago, people were only just starting to talk about battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid drives as mainstream vehicles. Now battery-electric vehicles are already at ten percent, or much higher if you include plug-ins and hybrids. I think there is a lot of strong motivation to go to electric drives. In particular, tech innovations in the fields of batteries, charging infrastructure and charging speed could change things quickly. What is more predictable is, say, 10 to 15 years ahead. On that horizon, I expect to see all three options: ICE, hybrids, and battery electric vehicles.
Interview: Gernot Goppelt
