Ford, EPA To Cooperate On Hydraulic Hybrid Technology

Autoparts Report, Oct 19, 2001

Ford Motor Co. and the Environmental Protection Agency are joining in a decade-long project to develop a high-mileage hybrid vehicle, probably an SUV, that runs off hydraulic fluid, officials said. Hydraulic hybrid technology was developed and patented by EPA's National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Mich., and refined under a cooperative agreement with Ford.

"This is the first-ever cooperative agreement with an automobile company targeted to develop EPA-patented automotive technology," EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said. Company officials said they felt compelled to explore beyond just proven technologies. "Hydraulic hybrid technology holds great promise for our customers and for our society," said Gerhard Schmidt, a company vice president.

EPA and Ford will share financing and personnel. Costs are expected to run in the millions of dollars, but exact amounts pledged under the agreement are considered proprietary, a Ford spokesman said. The partnership has been under negotiation since January 1999.

Though the Treasury would help pay the bill, Ford would have exclusive rights to the technology and hopes to put a pilot fleet of vehicles on the road by the end of the decade. The technology could improve significantly the fuel economy of light-duty trucks and sport-utility vehicles, the EPA said.

A Ford spokesman said a large SUV probably will be the first vehicle Ford builds using the technology. The vehicle's power train has a high-efficiency engine and a unique propulsion system that uses hydraulic pumps and storage tanks instead of electric motors and batteries used in electric-gas hybrid vehicles, officials said.

Energy is stored as compressed hydraulic fluid, and similar to the electric-gas hybrid system, applying the brakes saves energy that can be used to power the vehicle, according to EPA and company officials.

Other research companies involved in the project are FEV Engine Technology Inc., a German firm with a technical center in Auburn Hills, Mich.; and Eaton Corp.