The Kamm solar car, from Germany, won the Rallye.
21 June 2006
In June 2006 I travelled to France to participate with Aurora in Rallye Solaire, a four-day rally for electric vehicles, and with Aurora and Greenfleet in Challenge Bibendum, an international forum on sustainable mobility.
Rallye Solaire is a rally for electric vehicles, including solar cars, electric cars, electric scooters and electric bicycles.
The 2006 event took place over four days, staring at Gerone in the north of Spain and finishing in Toulouse in the south of France. It also included a mountain stage through the Pyranees, with a climb of over 1900 m.
Rallye Solaire is very different to the World Solar Challenge, where the fastest solar cars drive 3000 km in four days. In Rallye Solaire, the distance covered each day was relatively short (less than 200 km), and the vehicles assembled at intermediate towns for public displays and recharging.
A highlight of the event was to see, and ride in, a Twike, a small pedal-electric 2-seater vehicle that is popular (and road-legal!) in Europe.
Another highlight was to see Joachim Kamm single-handedly operate his small solar car and eventually win the solar class of the Rallye. World Solar Challenge cars, designed for the long, flat race across Australia, have large solar arrays, are somewhat unwieldy, and typically require a large support crew to operate. Kamm's car was designed for the European Tour de Sol events, with shorter stages through narrow, winding and mountainous roads; the smaller solar array is used mainly at the end of each day to recharge the battery. Kamm completed the Rallye without needing a support crew—Detlef Schmitz, who has been in every World Solar Challenge, drove his support van, but Joachim did the rest.
A low point of the event was the tragic destruction of the Aurora car in a fire on the first day. The solar car was in a police escort, 20 minutes ahead of the support car, when a fire started somewhere near the front wheel. The police pulled the driver from the car before he could get to the fire extinguisher. By the time the rest of us arrived on the scene, the car had burnt to the ground.
Aurora had three more events, including Challenge Bibendum, planned for the car before it retired at the end of the year. We had already started designing our new car, but we have lost our best motor, solar panels, and instrumentation systems.
On World Environment Day, the World Solar Challenge announced new rules that will make solar cars smaller, safer and more practical. (I was on the Technical Committee that developed the new rules.)
The Kamm solar car, from Germany, won the Rallye.
The Helios solar car, from Lille, France, has previously raced across Australia in the World Solar Challenge. They are currently designing a new car that will be much smaller (ISF 4000 class). A new group from Clermont Ferrand is also designing an ISF 4000 solar car for the 2007 World Solar Challenge.
The Solelhada solar car, from Toulouse, France, has also previously raced across Australia in the World Solar Challenge.
The Aurora solar car on display in Gerone. On the next leg of the Rallye, the car was tragically destroyed by fire.
For the mountain stage of the Rallye, I rode with Jean-Marc Dubié in his hybrid Kangoo. This is one of 35 hybrid Kangoo's built by Renault, and was once owned by French President Jacques Chirac. The car is a series, plug-in hybrid. The NiCd battery gives a range around town of about 80 km. A small petrol engine can be used to generate additional electricity to run the motor, but not to charge the battery. The battery is recharged by plugging in to a standard electrical outlet.
A Peugeot 106 electric car. This car had factory-fitted Michelin Proxima
tyres, developed for the VW 1-litre
car; these tyres have a rolling resistance coefficient of just 0.0065. The car uses a NiCd battery, and has a range of about 80 km.
There were two Twikes in the Rallye, from Switzerland and from Spain. These two-seater pedal-electric hybrids have a top speed of 85 km/h, and are popular in Europe.
The Open Street electric car has a range of 70 km and a top speed of 45 km/h.
The CityEL, from Germany, is a small single-seat electric commuter vehicle.
This simple prototype from Spain had a Perm brushed motor and a Thunder Sky lithium ion battery. The battery charger, also from Thunder Sky, automatically balanced the battery during charging.
Electric scooters from EVT and Peugeot also took part in the Rallye.
There were also a couple of electric-assist bicycles in the Rallye. This one had a Heinzmann hub motor and a Thunder Sky lithium ion battery.
The Twike is controlled using a simple joystick. Steering is controlled by moving the joystick from side to side. Acceleration and regenerative braking are controlled by two buttons on the front of the joystick. The top button controls power: half depressed gives half power, fully depressed gives full power, and double-clicking sets the cruise control to the current speed. The lower button, for controlling regen, is similar. Despite the simple controls, the Twike is very controllable—I was the passenger for some high-speed runs around a go-kart track one night, and the performance and handling was surprisingly good.
The mechanical brake on the Twike is controlled by back-pedalling.
The Twike windscreen is acrylic. The demister is ingenious—a pair of small hair dryers!
The Kangoo dash features a battery charge meter showing percentage charge (which is the same as the remaining charge for the 100 Ah battery), fuel remaining in the 9-litre tank, motor power in kilowatts, and speed.
The Open Street had indicators, horn and light controls on the steering wheel. The indicators were probably not self-cancelling like conventional car indicators. It is possible to buy aftermarket flasher units for motorcycles that cancel after a preset time—perhaps we should use this idea for Trev.
This Schachner Easy Bike was displayed at the final finish in Toulouse. It has a very neat NiMH battery pack, mounted below the rear carrier, and a 400 W hub motor.
After Rallye Solaire we stayed for three days with Lucien Giol, designer of the Heliotrope solar car that raced in the 1996 World Solar Challenge. We then spent a day in Paris before the start of Challenge Bibendum.
Lucien had this interesting electric vehicle in his shed.
The trams in Bordeaux get power from a third rail between the two wheel rails. To avoid electrocuting pedestrians, only the segment immediately below the tram is electrified.
There are plenty of scooters in France, including these BMW C1 scooters. They have a standard lap-sash seatbelt, and riders in France, Germany and Spain are not required to wear a helmet.
The latest Renault, seen in a showroom on the Champs Elysees, is as bad for your teeth as it is for the environment. Yes, they are lollies.
Toyota's personal mobility concept vehicle, the i-swing, in a Toyota showroom on the Champs Elysees.
Challenge Bibendum is an international showcase for sustainable mobility. The 2006 Challenge Bibendum was held at an automotive testing ground just outside Paris, but included a rally through Paris and a public display on the Champs de Mars at the base of the Eiffel tower.
The delegation from Australia included Greenfleet, Aurora Vehicles, and representatives of the Government of South Australia. The main purpose of the delegation was to lobby Michelin to bring a future Challenge Bibendum to Adelaide. Greenfleet had also planted trees in Australia to offset the estimated 25 tonnes of CO2 that would be emitted by the vehicles taking part in the technical tests and ride and drive sessions.
The main feature of Challenge Bibendum was the technical tests and demonstrations of over 70 different prototype and production vehicles, including urban cars, intercity cars, city buses, trucks, electric-assist bicycles and electric two- and three-wheeled vehicles. The different technologies used in the vehicles included battery electric, hydrogen fuel cell, petrol, diesel, ethanol (E85), LPG, CNG, liquid hydrogen, hybrid, and stop-start (micro-hybrid) operation of conventional engines.
Challenge Bibendum also incorporated a Learning Centre, featuring 55 stands with the themes of Road Safety, Urban Mobility and Energy Challenge.
Finally, Challenge Bibendum featured forums including technical forums and workshops, an energy conference, and an international forum covering issues such as future energy, urban mobility, and safety.
There was a wide variety of vehicles and technologies on display. However, one of the conclusions from the Energy Conference was none of the current technologies are sufficient to meet the challenges of climate change and dwindling oil reserves—a change in mindset and new technological breakthroughs are needed.
Fuel cells and biofuels are being actively pursued by many manufacturers. Another conclusion of the Energy Conference was that it is not yet possible to tell whether these will be viable and profitable by 2050.
One of the problems with fuel-cell cars is that they require a whole new infrastructure for generating and distributing hydrogen. At the moment, the performance of fuel-cell cars is similar to that of battery electric cars. The one advantage of a fuel-cell car is that it can be refuelled in a few minutes, whereas a battery car typically takes hours. New lithium ion batteries are being developed that can be charged in 5 minutes, but such rapid charging requires very high power. One possible solution that we should investigate is the development of a system that can store energy slowly during the day, and then transfer the energy quickly to recharge a battery-electric car.
Almost all of the cars at Challenge Bibendum were conventional sizes and masses. Using 1–2 tonnes of machinery to transport what is usually just one or two people is ridiculous. Bicycles and scooters are much more appropriate, but do not afford the same level of protection from weather and from crashes with large, heavy vehicles. Our car Trev is a prototype car with a mass of just 270 kg. A similar car at Challenge Bibendum was the Akasol Oscar. Akasol is an association of mainly volunteers who started out building solar cars for the Tour de Sol and then later moved on to designing practical cars. Oscar is a small battery-electric car that comfortably seats two people, or a driver and two small passengers. Akasol has developed the car design, chassis and drive system. Oscar has passed crash tests in Germany. Akasol is now looking for partners to produce the car. On the final night of the Challenge Bibendum, Akasol was given a special award for its contribution to sustainable mobility.
Trev should be at the next Challenge Bibendum, which will probably be held in China. Greenfleet have said that they would like to help us get there.
The Greenfleet stand was adjacent to the entrance of the Learning Centre. The Learning Centre and the adjacent dining room and bar were housed in a vast temporary building erected just for Bibendum.
Part of the Greenfleet stand, featuring Trev.
The Venturi Fetish is a high-performance electric sports car, using the AC Propulsion drive system. It won the Bibendum Design Award.
The Zooop is a high-performance battery electric car from Courrèges. Note the yellow Michelin tyres. The car has a 150 kW AC Propulsion drive system and lithium ion batteries.
The 2004 Courrèges car, the EXE. This one has red tyres and the AC Propulsion drive system.
The 2002 Courrèges car, the Bulle. This one has blue tyres, and louvre windows.
A Matra prototype electric people-mover. It uses a Matra ME3 electric power train, featuring a synchronous motor and 1:8.2 differential delivering 35 kW (50 kW peak) and 170 Nm.
The Blue Car, designed by Matra for lithium metal polymer battery manufacturer Bolloré.
The GEM comes in many versions.
A 4-seater GEM.
The Akasol Oscar is a small, low-mass, 1+1 (1+2?) battery electric car that is very similar to Trev. It is also known as the one litre car, because energy use is equivalent to one litre per 100 km. Akasol is an association in Germany that has been designing and building this car for many years. It has passed German crash-testing. Akasol has designed the basic car and drive system, and is looking for partners to produce the car.
The Oscar chassis is made from aluminium. The battery is under the floor; the induction motor, reduction gear, differential, electronics and cooling systems are in the front. The custom electronics incorporates the motor controller, battery management system and battery charger. One version of Oscar has a NiMH battery. The latest version has a SAFT lithium ion battery.
The front of the Oscar, showing the water-cooled induction motor. Notice the steep angle on the steering mechanism. The front suspension is a MacPherson strut, with a transverse composite leaf spring.
An electric bus.
A PVI electric truck.
A PVI garbage truck running on CNG. PVI also make bimodal garbage trucks that run on battery energy, with regenerative braking, when collecting, and then on CNG or other fuels when returning to the depot.
An electric bus from MGL, a Chinese manufacturer of lithium ion batteries.
Formula Zero is an organisation that is trying to organise racing of open-wheeled fuel-cell vehicles, starting with go-karts and progressing to full-size racing cars. A small hydrogen cylinder (above the steering column) will drive the kart for about 10 minutes, and can be changed in 15 seconds. The kart uses ultracapacitors (left and right sides of the kart) to provide bursts of high power for both acceleration and regenerative braking. This is an environmentally friendly alternative to Formula SAE.
The Maxwell ultracapacitor banks in the Forumla Zero go-kart incorporate circuitry for cell balancing.
The Mercedes-Benz F-Cell is a Mercedes-Benz A-Class fuel-cell vehicle. About 60 of them have been built, and are being tested in small fleets in Europe, the USA, Japan and Singapore. Range is about 160 km. Refuelling takes about 3 minutes. The ride is very smooth, but the noise of the compressors is a little disconcerting because it does not vary directly with the applied power.
The dash display of a Mercedes-Benz F-Cell.
The fuel cell and battery are under the floor of the F-Cell. The air compressor is under the bonnet.
The Michelin-PSI Hy-Light is a small prototype 4-seater fuel-cell vehicle that debuted at the 2004 Challenge Bibendum.
The Hy-Light has active, in-wheel suspension, so does not exhibit body roll during cornering or pitch during braking. For the slalom event, it was programmed to lean slightly into the corners.
The Hy-Light dash has a video rear-view camera, and gauges to show the power from the supercapacitors and the fuel cell.
The Hy-Light also has sliding doors.
With the exception of the diesel Mercedes-Benz Bionic car, the fossil fuel cars were unremarkable. The Bionic car is based on the aerodynamics of the boxfish, and has a Cd of just 0.19. Fuel consumptinon is 4.3 litres per 100 km.
There were many small urban electric vehicles at Challenge Bibendum, including this Poste chariot.
There were also many electric-assist bicycles. This MVE bicycle had a Sunstar i-bike kit featuring a drive motor on the front gear set, and a compact lithium battery (above the motor).
The Ergolite Glider 2 is a recumbent 2-wheeler (without pedals) that has been developed at FHTE, and used to evaluate different drive and battery systems. A vehicle like this would be much easier to build and register than something like Trev, and may be a good project for next year.
The Ergolite Glider 2 with what appears to be a high-speed brushless motor.
An even smaller drive motor.
Finally, a gratuitous photograph of Bibendum near a famous tower. The public display was held on the Champs de Mars, at the base of the Eiffel tower.