Hybrids pick up the Paice: A new high-voltage hybrid drive system from Paice corporation challenges traditional thinking - Trends Supplier Technology - Brief Article

Automotive Industries, June, 2002 by Gerry Kobe

Ask environmentalists and advocates of higher CAFE standards about the Paice Hyperdrive hybrid system and they will tell you it's the secret Detroit has been hiding to protect the status quo. Ask designers of competing hybrid drive systems and they'll tell you the operative word in the Hyperdrive concept is "hype." But in either case, they know the system well enough to have an opinion and that's the necessary first step in any new concept.

Hyperdrive is the brainchild of Russian-born inventor Alex Severinsky, who came to the U.S. in the late 1970s to ply his electronic technology skills. Arriving in the midst of America's second fuel embargo crisis, it was while waiting in line for fuel that Severinsky turned his attention to trying to get better fuel economy in automobiles.

He researched previous approaches to hybridization and found papers on the TRW mild hybrid approach that is essentially the system used in today's Toyota Prius. That system was first shown in 1967 but the patent lapsed and the technology became public domain. Severinsky sought out the inventor of that system and after discussion they decided that a much higher voltage approach could lower cost, improve efficiency and aid packaging.

Severinsky tapped Detroit talent to help develop his Hyperdrive concept, including former Oldsmobile Chief Engineer Ted Louckes, former Cadillao Chief Engineer Robert Templin and former Ford powertrain specialist David Polletta. Hyperdrive has now gone through its earliest testing phases and OEMs are at least curious about the published results.

"We did a prototype that we used to do proof of concept testing at Rousch Engineering," says Ted Louckes, chief operating officer at Paice. "We proved that all the function is correct we measured efficiencies and they met our specs. We did testing on components, put them together and did all the development on the software control system so we could sit in a driver's cockpit outside the dyne room and drive the Federal Schedule and measure results."

That the concept met specifications would not be remarkable were it not for the claim Paice makes for increased fuel efficiency. Louckes says that while Honda's Insight gets roughly 10 percent of its improved efficiency from the hybrid drive and Toyota's Prius gets roughly a 25 percent boost, the Paice system improves fuel economy 50 percent with no other modifications and works on any type or size of vehicle.

Skeptics line up ten-deep to challenge Paice's claim that the system is fully scaleable, but Louckes says there's good science behind the numbers.

"Other approaches don't scale-up well because of their low voltage and permanent magnet motors," he says. "We use high voltage for the same reason power companies send power down the wires at high voltage -- because you get fewer losses. And we use induction motors because when you scale-up a permanent magnet motor it becomes expensive and when it goes into regeneration mode it wants to throw the magnets out -- so those don't scale well."

The components and voltage in the Hyperdrive system scale up and down according to the size of the vehicle. In a small vehicle for example, the IC engine might only be 1.31, voltage is lowered to 400 volts and a combined 40 kW of power are produced by its two electric motors. In a large SUV, engine size bumps up to 3.0L, voltage scars to 800 or higher and over 100 kW is contributed by the motors.

In all iterations, the basic layout is either a gasoline or diesel engine, connected to a motor amplification module. That module consists of a starter/generator motor that starts the engine and runs as a generator when it is disconnected from the drive wheels. There is a clutch that can link the starter/generator and engine to the drive wheels when needed, along with a more powerful traction motor. Hyperdrive has two inverters -- one for each motor -- and a battery pack that is made up of 48 volt modules linked in a series to achieve the desired voltage.

Louckes claims cost will amount to a 15 percent premium on existing powertrain price and that issues of durability, though not yet tested, have been considered and will net be a problem. He also says the weight penalty will be small and the performance in every application improved.

After showing the concept to most major manufacturers, Paice was recently funded by an unnamed automaker to take it a step further and put Hyperdrive theory into practice. Now it gets more interesting.