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How Chrysler's Battery-Less Hybrid Minivan Works

thecarchik writes "Chrysler announced Wednesday that it would partner with the US Environmental Protection Agency to build and test prototypes of a different kind of hybrid vehicle, one that accumulates energy not in a battery pack but by compressing a gas hydraulically. The system in question, originally developed at the EPA labs, uses engine overrun torque to capture otherwise wasted energy, as do conventional hybrid-electric vehicles. The engine is Chrysler's standard 2.4-liter four-cylinder, the base engine in its minivan line. But rather than turning a generator, that torque powers a pump that uses hydraulic fluid to increase the pressure inside a 14.4-gallon tank of nitrogen gas, known as a high-pressure accumulator."

5 of 347 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Boom! by Brett+Buck · · Score: 3, Funny

    If it's holding 5000 PSI it will be pretty difficult to crush.

  2. Re:Boom! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    A two-ton SUV moving at 80 miles an hour agrees with you, but doesn't give a fuck

  3. Re:Pointlessly small amount of storage. by c0lo · · Score: 2, Funny

    Dear GOD please learn about units. kw*sec = kJ.

    Given the prayer, I'd say you have an unusual relation with your GOD.

    --
    Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
  4. Re:Boom! by PPH · · Score: 4, Funny

    CNN describes the tank as a "bladder".

    Damn! Now that's two bladders I'll be emptying when an accident occurs.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  5. Re:Compressed gases aren't *too* bad by seanvaandering · · Score: 1, Funny

    Is it discovery channel that everyone migrated over to? Dammit! I'm still watching "The Learning Channel" and learning that having 19 kids is suicidal.